Before the start of the Olympics, the predictions of medals for Canada were somewhere around 12 to 16, trying to rank 16th overall. Quite low for a country like Canada in my opinion, but what can we do? Well, obviously, put more money in sport programs and stop favoring the winter sports. Anyway, 12 to 16 medals, that's quite good already... and don't forget the 4th places that we are going to accumulate. Did I ever mention it? Canada is cursed with 4th place finishes. We always miss things by a hair. Same thing for the qualifications... You don't believe me? Let see, in many sports, finishing within the top 8 is necessary for qualification... Day 1: 2 9th place finishes in swimming (despite the guys improving their own times) and in artistic gymanastics, the male Canadian team missed the top 8 by 0.375 points... Yep, we finished 9th again. It's kind of sad that we always miss by a hair :( Would be less painful if it was by a lot. I'm sure the Canadian head coach is angry at himself right now for a bad decision (one of the gymnasts has an ankle injury, but was not taken off the team - I understand why, but at the same time, having someone in top shape would have made the difference).
Speaking of artistic gymnastic... One of the top stories coming into the Beijing Olympics is Kyle Shewfelt, olympic champion on the floor at Athens 4 years ago. See, our top gymnast broke BOTH his legs about 10 months ago. Can you imagine that? So being able to come back and participate to the Olympics game is awesome. Congrats to him!!! Kind of sucks though that after all his hard work, he won't be able to defend his title or participate to any of the engins finale :( And since team Canada did not qualify for the team competition, his Olympics are over :( But hat off to him for making it :)
Of course, there's not only disappointment. Micheal Barry finished 9th in the men road race and he was aiming for a top 10 finish. Frazer Will got 7th in judo (I think in the < 60kg category)which was what he expected. In weight-lifting, Marilou Dozois-Prevost came in 10th in the 48kg women category. Pretty good for someone who wasn't supposed to go to the Olympics.
LOL, that's it for Day 1... now, I can read a little bit and perhaps write a book review, yay!! by the way, Ames is lucky... the weather in Montreal so far is quite nice. It's been very rainy lately and there's a lot of floods... Perhaps her presence brought the sun out? :)
