Canada own the hard luck stories, but not the podium (News Feature)

By Barry Whelan Feb 20, 2010, 22:08 GMT

Vancouver - Canadians are modest folk, so they say, and - as the old joke goes - they may have much to be modest about at the half way stage of the winter Olympics.

'Maybe Canadians aren't made to swagger,' conceded the Globe and Mail after a day of deflated hopes and tears.

Mellisa Hollingsworth, for one, felt she had let the nation down after finishing out of the medals in women's skeleton. She was a big medal hope and lying second going into the last run. And it hurt.

'Obviously, my friends and my family, I know they love me regardless, but VANOC and Own The Podium and my entire federation, they've done so much for me. I just didn't do it,' she sobbed into the television cameras.

The pressure is undoubtedly on and mounting for the home team at the Vancouver Games. Hollingsworth is just one of many who have not been delivering a return on the money invested for Olympic glory.

'It's a bummer,' said alpine skier Robbie Dixon after the Canadians were left picking up the pieces in downhill and super-g.

'There were definitely very big expectations coming in here, and I think those expectations were legit. They weren't far-fetched. We had the tools and we had the coaching staff and everything we needed, and the fact that we've come away empty-handed, it's hard to swallow.'

The sight of the Canadian yellow either failing to get down the hill at Whistler or finishing way down the field has been hard to take. The alpine ski team went into the Games with high hopes, but after five events they have not been on the podium. Worse still, the US alpine skiers appear to own the mountains at Whistler.

Canada invested 110 million dollars in its Own The Podium programme to get to the top of the medals table but at the halfway stage, officials have already conceded defeat to the USA.

The Canadians are by now means doing badly. Four golds, three silver and a bronze is a creditable showing and the hosts remain on course to at least match Turin 2006 (7-10-7). But the projected medals tally of as many as 34 is now being adjusted downwards, and there are fears that a failure to produce victories could jeopardize future of the programme which began in 2005.

About half the programme's money has come from the federal government, with the remainder from the Vancouver Olympic committee VANOC which raised it from provincial governments, corporate donations and public contributions.

'My heart goes out to all the people who put so much money and time in allowing us to get into the track and spend time on the hill,' said Dixon.

'We had a great advantage over the rest of the world coming into the Olympics, and there are only three spots that count here - fourth and beyond doesn't count.'

Erik Guay could count himself a trifle unlucky - he has now competed at three races at two Olympic Games and finished fourth, fifth and fifth, missing out on a medal by the slender of margins.

But the Canadian media seems to be getting fed up with the hard luck stories. 'Like it or not, Canada choked,' was a headline in the National Post on the alpine ski performance, and there were similar views in other media.

At least Jon Montgomery gave something for the hosts to cheer about in snatching the men's skeleton gold, Canada's fourth of the Games, after the disappointment of the women's skeleton.

'The XXI Winter Olympiad was threatening to become the Hard Luck Games for Canada as the marquee athletes are not only failing to own the podium, they're having trouble scraping together a down payment,' the Vancouver Sun wrote.

According to the Globe and Mail, Canada's 'aggressive attitude' may have backfired as it has become 'something of a rallying point for US athletes and generated derision from others' who say it led Canadian officials to restrict training access to the venues.

However, the best days are probably to come for the host nation. A lot of Canada's strengths are in disciplines which won't be decided until the last few days, including curling, ski cross and ice-hockey.

'It's a moot point whether or not we'll be at the top (but) we know that our best events are to come,' said chef de mission Nathalie Lamert.

'We know that in the last four or five days of the Games, we probably have a nine-to-11 medal potential; that's our wheelhouse. So we're still on track, we're still ahead of where we thought we would be, where we planned to be at this point.'