Sports in Canadian culture

[Acajack]

Laurent Duvernay-Tardif has been traded to the New York Jets.

[megadude]

He'll be in a cooler city and much closer to home. Yeah, the Jets are going to suck for a while but at least he's got a ring already.

[JHikka]

Canada projected to win 23 Olympic medals in Beijing, predicts sports data analytics company
The Canadian Press · Posted: Nov 24, 2021 9:18 AM ET

A global data analytics company predicts Norway will top the Winter Olympics medal table again and Canada will finish fifth with 23 medals.

The California-based Gracenote, which supplies statistical analysis to sports leagues around the world, released medal projections Wednesday for February's Olympics in Beijing.

Gracenote seeded Norway, Russia, Germany and the United States first to fourth.

The company predicted another triumph for the Norwegians of 45 medals, including 22 gold.

Five gold medals, eight silver and 10 bronze were forecast for Canada in Beijing.

Gracenote picked gold for Canada's men's and women's hockey teams, moguls skier Mikael Kingsbury, snowboarder Max Parrot and speedskater Laurent Dubreuil, but expects Canada to be shut out of curling medals.

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/c...tion-1.6260577

[HomerSPC]

Originally Posted by JHikka

but expects Canada to be shut out of curling medals.

I hate it.

[esquire]

My son is a hockey obsessive, way beyond me in that regard, but my daughter is less enthused about sports. So acting on her colleague's advice, my wife signed her up for ringette so she can learn to skate and at least have a little experience with team sports with other girls. To be honest I don't get why ringette still exists given that girls can play hockey without obstacles now, and there are many opportunities to advance to elite leagues and US college scholarships. Ringette feels like a bit of a dying sport, but that's another story.

Anyway, what I found interesting is that the team is dominated by Francophones. And not just poseurs. These are legit full-on Franco-Manitobans who speak flawless (to my ears anyway) French and whose kids have accents in their names.

Is this just a quirk of my catchment area or is ringette a relatively big deal among Francophones and I just didn't know it?

By contrast, I don't recall my son ever having a Francophone teammate on his hockey teams.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by esquire

My son is a hockey obsessive, way beyond me in that regard, but my daughter is less enthused about sports. So acting on her colleague's advice, my wife signed her up for ringette so she can learn to skate and at least have a little experience with team sports with other girls. To be honest I don't get why ringette still exists given that girls can play hockey without obstacles now, and there are many opportunities to advance to elite leagues and US college scholarships. Ringette feels like a bit of a dying sport, but that's another story.

Anyway, what I found interesting is that the team is dominated by Francophones. And not just poseurs. These are legit full-on Franco-Manitobans who speak flawless (to my ears anyway) French and whose kids have accents in their names.

Is this just a quirk of my catchment area or is ringette a relatively big deal among Francophones and I just didn't know it?

By contrast, I don't recall my son ever having a Francophone teammate on his hockey teams.

My grand/great nieces were super into Ringette, to tell the truth, I don't even know if there is girl's hockey here. Maybe it's a numbers thing and they'd rather play Ringette than hockey and the girls who want to play hockey just play with the boys at the younger ages. I don't know. Maybe I'll find out when I see them at Christmas. My brother (their grandfather) used to tell me hilarious stories about how seriously they took it. Once, one of them was so upset at the officiating (she was ten) told her grandfather when she came off the ice "I'm going to write an email!" My brother was splitting a gut as he told me that.

When I was a kid, French kids playing hockey was like black guys playing basketball, it was what was done.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by JHikka

but expects Canada to be shut out of curling medals.

I remember reading this, not that it's like the old days where we were almost guaranteed wins but that was a fairly bold prediction. People love the curling (one of the most popular Olympic events and if anyone recalls I posted an article that said that curling was 51% of the American (yes American) coverage on NBC.

Curling unknowingly/subconsciously went the way of golf and tennis when it was made an official Olympic sport, it subtlety started to sell the sex. It's younger, fitter and likely the most intimate (via the live mics and closeups) than any other sport.

[Acajack]

I have never noticed that ringette's popularity was inordinately high among francophones or in Quebec in general.

Where I live we have ringette, we have all-girls hockey and occasionally girls playing on a mixed team with boys.

Pretty much the same as elsewhere in the country.

[elly63]

In the mid 70s Canada had one of the strongest swimming programs in the world (excepting the roid monkeys of the DDR) The program seems to be making a comeback as they are doing very well at the World Swimming Championships. Vids below:

Canada's Tessa Cieplucha swims to world championship gold in women's 400m IM
Canada ties United States for world championship gold in women's 4x100m freestyle relay
Rebecca Smith wins world championship silver behind Hong Kong's Haughey's world record swim

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I have never noticed that ringette's popularity was inordinately high among francophones or in Quebec in general.

Where I live we have ringette, we have all-girls hockey and occasionally girls playing on a mixed team with boys.

Pretty much the same as elsewhere in the country.

I always ended up in net with a dowel and no defense in high school. I couldn't watch a game even with pretty college girls playing.

You just can't compute the olympic factor. Analytics are usual off.

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by elly63

In the mid 70s Canada had one of the strongest swimming programs in the world (excepting the roid monkeys of the DDR) The program seems to be making a comeback as they are doing very well at the World Swimming Championships. Vids below:

Canada's Tessa Cieplucha swims to world championship gold in women's 400m IM
Canada ties United States for world championship gold in women's 4x100m freestyle relay
Rebecca Smith wins world championship silver behind Hong Kong's Haughey's world record swim

I wonder what role, if any, The Pam Am Sports Centre in Toronto has helped. Other cities like Montreal have great facilities. Toronto's was shit.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

I wonder what role, if any, The Pam Am Sports Centre in Toronto has helped. Other cities like Montreal have great facilities. Toronto's was shit.

I remember posting here some years ago about the Olympic Stadium's pool facilities getting a big renovation. The PanAm pool in Winnipeg was refurbed in 2019. Edmonton has a pretty good facility (Don Smith?) AFAIR.

[Airboy]

I think its a combination of great facilities but also an incredible coaching system. I hold certification to coach in 2 sports and I have to say its the collaboration with coaches from other sports and other clubs that has helped me get better.

I look at one of my sports, Rowing. When I first started coaching it was pretty insular. other coaches did not collaborate and you had to figure some thing out your self. Now the coaching conferences are huge events and brings all the components of sport science together to help even the club level coach.

Also during that time I have seen rowing go from predominantly international coaches to the team being lead by almost all homegrown coaches.

Similar cycling. I look at the coaching roster both at the national level and provincial level how ex elite Canadian athletes make up a bulk of the coaching staff. All are brought up through the coaching association.

Swimming, like rowing and athletics had to go through a period of complete breakdown and failure of the system to have to think about what they truly wanted to see with their sport. all decided to focus on key areas and we are seeing that fruit of the labour.

The problem is funding is based on how the sport did at the last world or Olympic games. there is a base level funding but the more medals you get, the more money you get. there is a number of funding streams not just gov.

There is also more opportunity for younger club level athletes to experience international competition. I am watching 2 young women from a local club. ( the same club the developed a current and former Olympic Track Medalists), were able to race the Pan Am Cyclocross championships in Texas a few weeks back. they finished in the top 10 and were then invited to join team Canada to go to race in Europe over the holidays. 3 or 4 World cup and European races. Something that was never available to me when I raced.

You can see the results of programs like this now with so many Canadian Athletes race at elite levels in all cycling disciplines.

[elly63]

Maggie MacNeil seems to be making a case for herself as Canada's swimming GOAT with a few more winning performances at the FINA World Swimming Championships. This goes along with her Best Female Athlete of Tokyo 2020 award and cash prizes of $15,000 for each individual win and $50,000 for a world record at this meet.

Should also say Canada was very close to world records in a few other events and I am only posting the highlights. There were several other medal performances

Canada's Maggie MacNeil wins world championship gold in the 100m butterfly
Canada's Maggie MacNeil wins world championship gold with world record (50-metre backstroke)
Canada wins world championship gold in the women's 4x200m freestyle relay

[Airboy]

So a group of First Nations and Vancouver Whistler are putting together a plan to bid on the 2030 winter Olympcs.

Based on what I heard over the weekend this has a good chance of moving forward. There are not many facilities to build. Upgrades to all yes, but still reduced costs.

Richmond Oval is all still there under the hardwood floors.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Airboy

So a group of First Nations and Vancouver Whistler are putting together a plan to bid on the 2030 winter Olympcs.

Based on what I heard over the weekend this has a good chance of moving forward. There are not many facilities to build. Upgrades to all yes, but still reduced costs.

Richmond Oval is all still there under the hardwood floors.

An Olympic bid based on the use of existing infrastructure is the only Olympic bid that I could get behind.

[jamincan]

Hopefully the Olympic flame doesn't glitch second time round!

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by esquire

An Olympic bid based on the use of existing infrastructure is the only Olympic bid that I could get behind.

Sounds like all the next round of bidders are ex sites as well. The IOC also wants bidders to respect the local indigenous populations.

Thinking though that by 2030 the current facilities will have past their operation life cycles and will need substantial upgrades. That and with new sports and new technology coming in the next few games we may need additional buildings.

[elly63]

Remainder of World Juniors officially cancelled
TSN.ca Staff December 29 2021

The remainder of the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship has been cancelled, the IIHF announced on Wednesday, citing a recommendation from the COVID-19 Medical Group and the IIHF Medical Committee.

The cancellation comes after a number of positive cases of COVID-19 among the 10 teams in the tournament, which was being held in Red Deer, Alta. and Edmonton. Two games - Russia versus Slovakia and Finland versus Czechia - were forfeited on Wednesday due to COVID-19, making it three games forfeited in two days. On top of health and safety concerns, with the third cancellation, the IIHF determined "the sportive integrity of the event ha[d] been compromised" and the remainder of the tournament must be cancelled.

“Together with the teams, we came into this event with full confidence in the COVID-19 protocols put in place by the IIHF, the LOC, Alberta Health, Alberta Health Services and the Public Health Agency of Canada,” IIHF president Luc Tardif said in a statement. “The ongoing spread of COVID-19 and the Omicron variant forced us to readjust our protocols almost immediately upon arrival to attempt to stay ahead of any potential spread. This included daily testing and the team quarantine requirement when positive cases were confirmed.”

Tardif says there was no other way to continue.

“We owed it to the participating teams to do our best to create the conditions necessary for this event to work,” Tardif said. “Unfortunately, this was not enough. We now have to take some time and focus on getting all players and team staff back home safely.”

Hockey Canada president Scott Smith and CEO Tom Renney echoed the disappointment in their statement released later on Wednesday.

“Hockey Canada has worked tirelessly since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure it would be equipped to host world-class, international events in a safe and healthy environment," the statement read. "Despite our best efforts, and continually adapting and strengthening protocols, we have unfortunately fallen short of our goal of completing the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship and handing out medals on Jan. 5 due to the challenges of the current COVID-19 landscape.

"Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have always made the health and safety of event participants and the community at large a priority, and given the news that we have encountered positive cases within the World Juniors environment, we understand and support the decision to cancel the remainder of the event. Although we know this is the right decision, we sympathize with all participants who have earned the opportunity to represent their countries on the world stage and that will not be able to realize that dream in its entirety.”

[BlackDog204]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I have never noticed that ringette's popularity was inordinately high among francophones or in Quebec in general.

Where I live we have ringette, we have all-girls hockey and occasionally girls playing on a mixed team with boys.

Pretty much the same as elsewhere in the country.

Ringette peaked in the late 80's, and I recall it was growing leaps in bounds...that was before Manon Rheaume, and the meteoric rise of women's hockey killed off the sport.

Now ringette is only a fringe sport at best.