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donbrasco4 wrote:

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memyselfandi wrote:

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Axle the Bulldog wrote:

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Seriously what is up with Canada? Does the Canadian government not sponsor athletic events? Are sports scholarships not available? Hell even Mexico won a bronze already. Canooks get your act together you're embarassing North America.

Yup, we're sucking bad this Olympics. Canada does not sponsor their athletes as much as the US does, I'm pretty sure. It sucks when the Olympics comes around but that's 2 weeks every two years. We get over it fast. Personally, I'd much rather see our government money go towards more important issues like our health, education, etc, etc..... than sports. But it does suck to see us down at the bottom this Olympics. Perhaps the gov't is saving up it's funds for Vancouver 2010.

Wait a second. How exactly is the U.S. government spending more money on Olympians than the Canadian government? They aren't state-paid here like they get a lump-sum for each medal. Many U.S. athletes do get college scholarships but that money comes from sports boosters at those individual schools and the NCAA which gets it money from tickets and corporate sponsorships. The USOC also gets its money from corporate sponsorships to support U.S. athletes. And then there are people like the Williams sisters or the men's basketball team for example, who obviously don't need any government cash as an incentive to compete.

The USOC has paid for US athletes who medal since 1984, up to $25,000 this year.

Called Operation Gold: http://www.usolympicteam.com/content/index/894

The USOC is not an arm of the United States government. It's a non-profit organization that relies on corporate donations for the most part. Axle is trying to make it sound like American taxpayers have to choose between gold medals or our schools and hospitals, which is what I thought was amusing.