The Canadian (olympic) Complaint
February 20, 2006 1:31 PM   Subscribe

Canada's bizarre olympic history - we can be a nation of whiners, but sometimes whiners win (or win, place and show), even forty years later. It doesn't work every time, but there's still time...
posted by Chuckles (17 comments total)
 
Salé and Pelletier have come up several times on MetaFilter, but I don't think any of the other stories rated:
What were the skating judges watching?
Is this really news porting? (ABC on the Salé - Pelletier affair)
Justice Served
Le Gougne admits she was pressured
Russians going home?
posted by Chuckles at 1:31 PM on February 20, 2006


I thought they said "whingers" in Canada.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 1:35 PM on February 20, 2006


It seems a bit unfair to accuse Sylvie Frechette of being a whiner. She lost a gold medal to a typo, for god's sake.

And the athlete in your last example appears to have specifically requested that an appeal not be filed, so it's hardly fair to accuse her of whining, either.

The other cases are somewhat less clearcut, but in all of them, there are fairly valid cases for the protests that were launched. Other than to be inflamatory (or maybe I'm just being whooshed by intentional sarcasm?) I can't imagine why you'd label these athletes as whiners.
posted by jacquilynne at 2:00 PM on February 20, 2006


I thought they said "whingers" in Canada.

Not in any part of Canada where I've been.
posted by solid-one-love at 2:15 PM on February 20, 2006


I'm sick and tired of Canadians being called "whiners" all the time! Why? It's not very nice, and it's not fair. Like our tax system. Why are people so mean to us? They never let up. On and on and on, year after year after year. It never stops. What have we done to deserve this? It's because we have better health care. Well, we dont' really, it sucks like everything else in this country. Oh, what's the use, anyway.
posted by slatternus at 2:25 PM on February 20, 2006


Gee people, I was just trying to have a little fun... Call it artistic license or something.

And yes, it looks like it should have been whingers - eye'm note xactly teh world gretest spler.
posted by Chuckles at 2:42 PM on February 20, 2006


Slatternus. Stop whining.
posted by slimepuppy at 2:50 PM on February 20, 2006


Chuckles and ZenMaster: No! It sounds just as weird to Canadians as it does to you when we hear Aussies and Brits say "whingers". Now steady on, lads!
posted by Turtles all the way down at 2:54 PM on February 20, 2006


Winger?
posted by PurplePorpoise at 3:02 PM on February 20, 2006


Canadian Women take Hockey Gold. yay
posted by edgeways at 3:05 PM on February 20, 2006


Our women's team didn't just win the hockey gold... they crushed everyone they played against. The tally for the competition was something like 46 goals for Canada and 2 against.
posted by clevershark at 5:02 PM on February 20, 2006


Winger!

All I know is that at least we're not waking up the competition in the middle of the night so that they're too tired to compete and our athletes convienently "win" instead.

I look forward to your FPP on Canadian Olympic chokers, soon to include the men's hockey team.
posted by GuyZero at 6:18 PM on February 20, 2006


"Whingers" is British. People in Canada usually whine, they don't whinge.
posted by zadcat at 6:32 PM on February 20, 2006


Finally a Canadian joke that's not a variation on "A moose, a beaver and a Mountie walk into a bar..."
posted by warbaby at 9:37 PM on February 20, 2006


.. so whats the rest of the story, warbaby?
posted by PurplePorpoise at 10:47 PM on February 20, 2006


Everyone runs away from the moose, because moose are dangerous. No realli! A møøse once bit my sister!
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:07 PM on February 20, 2006


It seems a bit unfair to accuse Sylvie Frechette of being a whiner

That was a funny time - the American who took the gold even though she knew it was a mistake - was the wife of the Toronto Bluejay's third baseman. Why would you keep a medal that everyone knows you didn't win?

Ed hitting a homerun in the world series more than made up for it though...
posted by srboisvert at 3:01 AM on February 21, 2006


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