Well the front page at UofT is about how great our returning Olympic athletes are. I agree that they are great and I offer them congratulations. I admire their accomplishments and I am a great fan of the fortitude, perseverance and hard work all the athletes display.
Ok that's done with. What annoys me about this article is the last sentence, "The challenge now is to take our facilities and programs up another notch, so that they can do even better in London in 2012." Um, excuse me but this is Canada. We don't give athletic scholarships and I truly hope we never do. There is a reason for this. We value academics for academics sake. We don't allow our institutions of higher learning to generate funds via athletics. I am proud of the fact that our football team sucks so bad. These guys have to hit the books and don't have time to play ball (as often as maybe they'd like). And what is it about a medal count that everyone is so hung up on. What does the number of olympic athletes at UofT say about me or my education (I have a previous degree B. SC. Phm 1987 and an currently working on another one part time). I want to receive an education at an institution that puts its academic programs first and doesn't waste money and effort trying to achieve a goal of no instituitonal value.
The same goes for a country as a whole. How can the number of medals a country gets say anything about the country.
The most fascinating nation at the Olympics was India. With only a slightly smaller population than China, India sent only 55 athletes to the games. What does this say about India. Mostly, I think it says they just don't care, neither about the Olympics, nor what anyone else thinks about their level of competition. I say go India! Cause when all the rest of the countries jump off the bridge, India will have the rest of the planet all to themselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment