Originally published on My Life Is Like A Song on April 13, 2009
Recently, Canada's teams have not fared as well as they are expected. Our men's team, our women's team and our junior team in curling did not win the World Championships. The women's hockey team has lost to the U.S. two years in a row. Our figure skaters (although very impressively won medals) did not win World Championships (when some media predicted they could).
Many people may be feeling down or disappointed in our teams.
For me, I remember too many teams and athletes arriving at the Olympics as World Champions only to lose at the Olympics. Brian Orser won the Worlds in 1987...but won silver at the Olympics in 1988. Kurt Browning won the Worlds in 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1993 but did not medal at two Olympic Games in 1992 and 1994 while defending champion. Elvis Stojko won the Worlds in 1997 and did not win the Olympics in 1998. Adam van Koeverden although well decorated, inexplicably faded in the 1000m in 2008. Perdita Felicien hit the first hurdle and fell in 2004. Jeremy Wotherspoon fell at the start of his race in 2002.
There are probably countless more that I can't think of at the moment.
I'm not saying that the teams and athletes who are now losing will win at the Olympics but maybe it will make them a bit hungrier and more motivated for next year.
John Kucera won the World Championships in Downhill skiing, but this sport is not as predictable. The chance of him winning the gold in 2010 is far less than in a sport like curling or hockey so I don't think very competitive and unpredictable sports follow the same rule. I don't think he'll have the same pressure as defending World Champion.
Earlier in the winter, it seemed like our athletes could do no wrong. The "Own the Podium" funding seemed to have given us many great results (exceeding our expectations) going into the Olympics, but secretly I was worried about the expectations on our athletes would be too much for them.
So for now, although I would love to see Canada win more World Championships (because hey, a World Championship is better than nothing), I'm glad we're not winning everything...because I want Canada to win at least one gold medal next year and hopefully many more!!