Some really interesting comments and points being made at the moment - thanks guys. Can we get rid of the personal stuff, and just give opinions on the issues? Everyone has a valid opinion, and if we can get some consensus on issues, perhaps we can move toward solutions at some point, instead of silly bickering...
I was the original rsb - My name is Ron Bowker. I don't know why someone else would want to be rsb or bsr or whatever, but perhaps the cloak of anonymity works for some of the posters here. It doesn't work for me...
Anyways, as far as OWNING THE PODIUM in terms of winning a substantial number of medals in distance running, in the very near future, is obviously a fantasy...
It's a legitimate question to ask, IMHO, why we need to OWN THE PODIUM, in order for a sport to get funding?
Is that all that sport means to us? Really? You must be kidding, if you believe that.
It's like saying to kids in school, we'll do one run in Phys.Ed. class in September. Those who finish in the top 3, we will pay some attention to --- maybe even give you some coaching, and take you to a track meet. The rest of you are total losers, you should just go and hang out at 711, and smoke dope, and dropout.
Because THERE IS NO VALUE TO SPORT IN CANADA IF YOU DON'T OWN THE PODIUM. Is that really the message they are trying to send out, because that is being received by a lot of citizens and their kids as the message...
Our previous successes in distance running were based on a whole different set of principles. We were always trying to be more INCLUSIVE, as compared to the EXCLUSIVITY of OWN THE PODIUM thinking... We wanted more people to run, and to try, and to train, get good coaching, put some other parts of life on the back-burner for a while, and see how good you can really be with another 10 years of training and racing....after Univesity...
Our version of HIGH PERFORMANCE produced a real depth of performance almost across the whole spectrum of distance running, on the track, on the roads, and over the country...
You had to be damn good to make the Canadian team, and if made an Internationally accepted standard, then you were on the Team, and went and gave it your best, and kept improving and getting more experience and getting better, and so on and so on....
Did you know we had 3 women in the Olympic final in 1988 in both the 3000 and the 10000 metres, and 2 in the 1500 metre final? That was the result of our version of a High Performance system for distance running...And some will point out that the African women were just getting started, and that is true. But you should also note that the Eastern European women from many countries were doped to the gills, and very hard to beat. So were some of the American women by the way. In Canada, apparently only our SPRINTERS were doped to the gills....Of course, if that's what it takes to OWN THE PODIUM, then all is good, right?
We used to think that if you could make the International Standard (not some articially high made-in-Canada standard, manufactured by some highly-paid bureaucrat in Ottawa), then you had a chance to take on the World, and go for it...
And if you went into the Games ranked in the top 24 in the World (3 athletes/Country - who the f**k really cares what the 17th best Kenyan runs for the steeple?) then you had a shot at being at least TOP 16 in the World, which I think is pretty damn good, and absolutely worthy of the support of our Sport System. If you went in ranked a bit higher, you maybe have a shot at top 8, and of course only a very select few are in there with a PODIUM chance.
And that's the way it is, when the sport is competitive around the World, instead of just a few fairly small, mostly white, Countries, such as most of the sports that we think Canadian is OWNING THE PODIUM in.
Feel free to disagree, but please do it politely.
Thanks / Ron Bowker (the one and only) :)