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Originally Posted by Thomas1007
Canada will take home hockey gold imho. 
I agree its sad that we as a country dont put enough money into training our atheletes as other countries. We should dominate winter sports.
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Actually I stand somewhat corrected on that. The COC (Canadian Olympic Committee) put a plan into effect pretty much just for the Vancouver games. It seems that in '76 in Montreal we, the host country, did not win a gold medal. Nor did we, the host country, win a gold medal during the winter games in Calgary. They don't want that to happen in Vancouver.
So they put a plan into effect, and that's why they were predicting 25 medals total for Canada in this 2006 games. We likely won't get that many, but we should still be in the top 2 or 3 countries overall for medal counts.
The COC also sunk millions into the Canadian athletes of note, for the latest fitness and diagnostic equipment and coaching and training. So, it's something anyway. It's still nowhere near the massive amounts of cash the USA dumps into their athletic programs and athletes. Look at speedskater Joey Cheek for example, he won a gold medal and mentioned to the media that he would be donating his $25,000 bonus to charity. Do Canadian athletes get a $25,000 bonus for winning gold at the Olympics? I highly doubt it. :D