Canada Vs The World (Or Maybe Just Michael Phelps)

With today marking the launch of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Canada has high expectations. With a focus on winning Canada has decided not to send any athletes that do not have a chance at making the podium by increasing their standards to a 16th place finish (wait the guy in 16th has a chance of winning? that doesn't even qualify for a final...). These new higher standards have forced Canada to send one of its smaller teams in recent times. Despite having invented the sport Canada will compete in the sport of basketball, nor will it compete in volleyball. The former boxing powerhouse that produced athletes such as Lennox Lewis will also send just one boxer to Beijing. These new standards have Canada looking at a realistic goal of 12 - 15 medals (didn't we win that many when we didn't care about winning), meanwhile American swimmer Michael Phelps is looking at the realistic goal of winning 8 GOLD medals HIMSELF.

Canada's Olympic history has been an embarrassment to the country for quite some time. The 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Quebec left the city in debt for 30 years paying $1.61 billion for a stadium it has just finished paying off in 2006. The 1976 Olympics also marked the only time that host country did not win a single gold medal at their own Olympic games. Canada's failure to win a gold medal was especially embarrassing when taken in to account that 30 countries had boycotted the games. The Ben Johnson fiasco of 1988 in Seoul, Korea has also tarnished Canada's Olympic history. Ben Johnson the world's fastest man had won Canada a gold medal in the 100m dash only to have it stripped due to a positive steroid test.

Despite increasing our standards Canada's biggest hopeful for a gold medal is Chris Bosh and he's not even a fuxing Canadian nor is he competing for Canada.