The second week in Athens for our Canadian athletes certainly was better than the first week. We finished with 12 medals which is only two less than we collected four years ago in Sydney.
I'd feel a great deal better about our performance if some of our best chances hadn't dissapated completely. I was expecting gold from Perdita Felicien in the 100m hurdles, our men's eights in rowing and Alexandre Despatie in the ten-metre springboard competition. We came home medal-less in all three events.
I say we take a long look at what they're doing in Australia. They have a similar history, culture and population size yet we've got twelve medals while they finished with 49. I realize such results cost money, but wouldn't it be cool to be an Olympic powerhouse and finish fourth overall like the Aussies did? I think so.
We'll do this again in two years for Torino 2006. For now, it's World Cup of Hockey time!
