Thanks for finding that, very interesting!
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Interesting ending |
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Even the United States of America is an artificial assemblage of a country. |
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Great Canadian Sporting Moments
Graham Smith was born to swim. Commonwealth Games History Graham Smith CBC Video His father, Don Smith, was a prominent swimming coach. His brother, George, and sister, Sandra, swam for Canada from 1967 to 1970. Another sister, Susan, joined the national team in 1972. A younger sister, Becky, was an Olympic bronze medalist in 1976. It was Graham, however, who established the most impressive record among this incredible family. He amassed a total of 56 gold, 23 silver, and eight bronze medals in Commonwealth, Olympic, national, and world championship events. When Montreal hosted the Olympics in 1976, Smith had his heart set on winning a gold medal for his father, who was seriously ill at the time. Though he narrowly missed an individual medal placing in two events, Smith didn't come away empty handed; he helped the men's 4 x 100m medley relay team claim the silver medal. After Smith's father passed away shortly after the Olympics, an Edmonton swimming pool was re-named in his honour. The Donald Smith Pool just happened to be the site of the 1978 Commonwealth Games aquatic events, and it was in this pool that Graham washed away his Olympic disappointment and established his own swimming legacy. He won a record six gold medals in the 100m and 200m breaststroke, the 200m and 400m individual medley, the 400m freestyle, and the 4 x 100m medley relay. In addition, he set a remarkable five Commonwealth Games and three Commonwealth records. Despite these outstanding achievements, the pinnacle of his career was yet to come. Just a few weeks later, at the world championships in West Berlin, he won the 200m individual medley event in a world record time of 2:03.65, beating out three other world record holders in the process. Smith later attended the University of California at Berkley, where he championed the school's swim team to six U.S. National Collegiate Athletic Association swimming titles. He was also the first Canadian to win an NCAA triple crown in 1979, with three gold medals and a relay title to his name. After returning to Canada to complete his degree, he led the University of Calgary's swim team to six national titles. Nineteen-seventy-eight, however, remained his most exceptional year. He received the Lionel Conacher Trophy as Canada's top male athlete, the Norton Crowe award as Canada's top male amateur athlete, and the Lou Marsh Trophy as the Canadian Press choice for the nation's most outstanding overall athlete. Smith also received an honoured place in the Canadian Aquatic Hall of Fame in 1986. |
Embarrassing malfunction at the beginning of the Sochi 2014 opening ceremony!
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Well, I think we as Canadians can sympathize with that, as long as nobody got killed, it's all good, as they say. |
Dufour-Lapointe sisters offer tear-jerking tale
Steve Buffery, QMI Agency Feb 9, 2014 http://i62.tinypic.com/rti8ae.jpg Canadian silver medallist Chloe Dufour-Lapointe (C) and her sisters, gold medalists Justine (R) and Maxime (L) stand with their mom, Johane Dufour and dad, Yves Lapointe, as they talk to the media in Sochi, Russia, on February 9, 2014. (Al Charest/QMI Agency) Moments after middle daughter Chloe gave a tearful speech about how much her parents meant to their daughters, Johane Dufour — the mother of the suddenly world-famous Dufour-Lapointe sisters — waved her arms towards her girls and said: “Look at how beautiful they are. Look at these wonderful girls.” Yes, look at them. But even more, look at this family. And listen. Listen to Chloe speak about the love she and her sisters, Olympic moguls champion Justine and oldest daughter Maxime, have for their parents, Johane and Yves, and how much of their success, both as athletes and women, they owe to their parents, and how much Justine’s gold and Chloe’s silver medals are the result of the sacrifices their parents made. “They are our most loyal fans and we wouldn’t be here without them,” said Chloe, breaking down in tears. “From when we were very young, they surrounded us with love. My parents kept telling us that we would make it. And we couldn’t let them down. And we were bound to end up here.” Chloe spoke about how they would camp out in Lake Placid, N.Y. in the summertime so she could train for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and how, at day’s end, her dad would make the family homemade soup, and they’d all sit down together as a family and eat. A simple sentiment, but beautiful. She spoke of the family selling their beloved boat, which they used to sail on Lake Champlain on summer weekends, so she and her sisters could spend more time focusing on moguls. Yves spoke of how his wife, who holds three university degrees, gave up her career so the girls would have a rock at home. And Johane recalled telling her girls they were a triangle “and all the angles should be equal to make a stable triangle.” There was so much love inside Chekhov Hall in Sochi’s main press centre on Sunday that even some members of the media found themselves fighting back tears. This is a family that, from the time the Dufour-Lapointe sisters were babies, spent as much time together as possible. When they’re travelling on the World Cup circuit, the Dufour-Lapointe sisters room together. This is about as close a family as one could imagine, and you could see that at a day-after media conference organized so Justine and Chloe could talk about their 1-2 finish in the Olympic moguls competition. Yves, an electrical engineer, was asked about the sacrifices he and his wife made over the years for their daughters. “You ask me, ‘What was our sacrifice?’” he said. “Really there were no sacrifices. It’s all about choices. It was a question of believing in a dream and believing in what the girls were telling us.” “That was our choice. To be close to them and to watch every single moment when they had success or pain,” added Johane. “When we’re old, and we don’t have any more money, we will be happy now to sit in a rocking chair, in a 2 1/2-room apartment. But right now, those babies, these little girls, these little teenagers, need us.” For Johane and Yves, the weeks leading up to the Sochi Olympics were difficult. The girls were away training, and they hardly had a chance to speak to them. So when Justine and Chloe roared down the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park course Saturday (oldest sister Maxime failed to make it into the final), their parents were almost unable to contain themselves — the family’s long journey coming to an almost-unthinkable climax. “I just wanted to see my babies,” Johane said when asked what her thoughts were when Justine and Chloe won their medals. The sisters’ world is bound to change. But one thing is clear. As a family, they’ll never drift apart. When asked about where they go from here, Justine, in all her teenage exuberance, said they were going to establish a clothing line for young girls who want to train hard and look good. “We love fashion, we’re addicted to clothing and makeup and hair. We’re not just athletes, we’re girls too,” she said with a laugh. “This is the start of a new chapter for all of us.” Added Chloe: “Yes, and three is a very beautiful number.” |
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The five Olympic Rings are the most recognizable and objective symbol of the Olympic Games. All five rings are an absolutely necessary component of that symbol. It is all or nothing. When only four of the five rings open the symbol is destroyed. It is like the Canadian flag without the maple leaf. The shape and look of an Olympic cauldron, by contrast, is unique and original to each and every games. Although one piece of the cauldron failed to work in Vancouver, that piece was not functionally essential and the cauldron still lit and performed its function as a cauldron. And since each cauldron is a unique creation for each games and no one knows exactly what a particular cauldron is supposed to look like, the incompleteness of the cauldron in Vancouver was not nearly as unmistakeable as the incompleteness of the Olympic Rings in Sochi. Both in form and in function, an Olympic symbol was not destroyed in Vancouver. Moreover, the malfunction in Sochi was at the very beginning of the ceremony. It was the opening special effect of an event designed to marvel and impress the world. Its failure made one uncomfortable at the very beginning of the ceremony and created a temporary distraction from the artistry that immediately followed. It took a while to relax psychologically and enjoy the rest of the show. At least in Vancouver, you were able to sit back and enjoy the beauty of the first 99% of the ceremony without any uncomfortable distractions. But imagine if the snowboarder in Vancouver crashed badly on the opening stunt. That's what Sochi's mistake was like. Vancouver's cauldron malfunction was embarrassing to be sure, but for the reasons above, I will take Vancouver's cauldron malfunction over Sochi's Olympic Rings malfunction every time. |
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Canadians just weren't into it in the 1980s or before. I know, because I was there. The NBA standings and results were consigned to the back pages of the sports sections if they even showed up at all, and rarely was there an actual story. Sometimes a one-paragraph round-up of the previous evening's games was all you got. And NCAA ball? You maybe got results, but never a story unless something unusual happened or it was March. And on TV? A short blip during the sports broadcast, if that. I agree that the Universiade win was the best accomplishment by Canadian players, but I still disagree that it was the greatest moment for Canadian basketball as a whole. Because the epitome of basketball is the NBA. A world university basketball tournament just isn't in the same league. At all. You really can't underestimate the impact made by the Raptors in 2001, when they got within a second of making the conference finals. Yeah, they were all American players, but the point is, we finally had a team on the big stage. The Raptors were ours. Every hoops fan in Canada was following their playoff run, even if lots of Canadian basketball fans hadn't adopted them as "Canada's team." The excitement was palpable, and unlike anything I had ever experienced as a hoops fan in Canada. The Raptors literally inspired a whole generation of amazing talent in the GTA that is now making a splash in the NCAA and the NBA. One after another, these great Toronto players talk about how Vince Carter was their inspiration when they were kids. The Universiade win in 1983 didn't do that. |
Basketball has been big on the East Coast long before the NBA came to Canada just maybe not nation wide though.
My favourite moment was seeing StFX win the national championship in front of a 10,500 sell out at the Metro Centre in Halifax circa 2000. With the game tied vs Brandon University and a second left a bogus foul call gave X 2 free throws to basically win the championship. Allegedly the X coach told Power Forward Dennie Oliver to miss both free throws (which be blatantly did) for a fair overtime showdown which X ended up winning. This was highlighted with a Mastercard commercial starring Oliver (one of those "priceless" adverts) that ran that spring and summer. StFX ended up winning back-to-back in 2000 & 2001 with a team stacked with local talent: Fred Perry, Dennie Oliver, Jordan Croucher (all from Halifax) who had successful careers in Europe, Croucher eventually became a successful R&B/Hip Hop musician after his playing days. I should add B.C. native Randy Nohr who was the starting point guard for that team was the final cut from the Canadian Olympic team for the 2000 Olympics that summer. Great basketball team. |
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Your premise that the NBA is the "epitome" of basketball is disingenuous. What does "epitome" mean? Highest paid? Traditionally wouldn't most longtime ball fans in Kentucky and Indiana live and die with the Wildcats and Hoosiers first moreso than another team. It's as if you're saying basketball started in Canada when the Raptors arrived. You're seeing that several people here disagree with your vision. And to say that Canadians just weren't into it (before the Raptors) in the 80s or before is ludicrous. Seriously dude you gotta broaden your scope. It's great you wanna drink the American Kool-Aid but some of us choose not to and are aware of our own history. OUR HISTORY! It would be like me pimping the NHL and CHL and ignore the KHL as if it were nothing. And with that here's a little lesson in Canadian basketball, hate to come across as so preachy, but gee whiz! |
Great Canadian Sporting Moments
Noel MacDonald Edmonton Grads In 1933, Noel MacDonald received her basketball baptism. http://i57.tinypic.com/2wh1m34.jpg Joining the Edmonton Grads, Canada's greatest women's basketball team, the rookie was given the unenviable task of guarding Alberta Williams, Tulsa's tall centre. Surprising perhaps even herself, MacDonald outscored Williams and helped lead the Grads to victory. Before she finished playing in 1939, retiring as the Grads' captain, MacDonald would lead the Grads to success around the world. In 1915, the girls' basketball team of John A. McDougall Commercial High School in Edmonton, under the tutelage of coach Percy Page, who has been inducted as a builder into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, won the Alberta provincial championships. The women decided to continue playing following their school days and formed the Commercial Graduates' Basketball Club. Thus were born the Edmonton Grads, the most successful team, regardless of sport, male or female, in the history of Canadian sport. Between 1915 and 1940, the Grads played 522 games against both men's and women's teams around the world, winning 502 and recording winning streaks of 147 and 78 games. They lost only one provincial championship (1921) and, beginning in 1922, won the Canadian championship every year of their history. They won the first Underwood Trophy—a challenge cup contested primarily between Canadian and American women's teams in 1923 and did not relinquish the trophy in the next 17 years. Although, women's basketball was not an official Olympic sport, exhibition tournaments were held in conjunction with the 1924, 1928, 1932, and 1936 Games. The Grads represented North America and went undefeated in 27 games. The standard of excellence set by the Grads in the 18 years before MacDonald joined the team made her achievements all the more remarkable. She was recruited for the Grads' feeder team, the Gradettes, out of Grade 12 at McDougall Commercial High School. She played a year-and-a half for the Gradettes before joining the Grads in 1933. In 1936, she was named captain of the squad that won the Olympic exhibition tournament in Berlin. When she retired from the Grads in 1939, MacDonald had played 135 games for the Grads and was the team's all-time leading scorer with an average of 13.8 points per game. She was called by one reporter "Canada's best female basketball player" of her era and in 1938 Canadian Press recognized her as Canada's female athlete of the year. Despite her individual success, MacDonald listened as coach Page preached the importance of team play. During her tenure with the team, the Grads won every provincial and national championship they contested. In Underwood Trophy challenges, the Grads defended the cup 20 straight times between 1933 and 1939, winning 57 games and losing only three in the process. MacDonald retired after marrying Harry Robertson, a one-time world champion hockey player, in 1939. She served on the executive of the Canadian Amateur Basketball Association and took up coaching. She coached girls' high school basketball in both Saskatchewan and Alberta, as well as at the University of Alberta. Edmonton Grads - Wikipedia And for "reel" fans of basketball enjoy this little motion picture. Shooting Stars (the Edmonton Grads story) Time well spent! |
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The all-star game will be in Toronto in 2016. I'm not a fan of the all-star game myself, but there's no question that all the hoopla will attract even more kids to the game. You've got kids all the way up to university age who've never known Toronto without an NBA team. There is a critical mass of players and fans in this country now. I respect that you're bringing attention to accomplishments in the past, but the exciting basketball stuff is happening now. I think my more objective attitude to this is due to the fact that I've never been a nativist. I generally don't care about Canadian things just because they're Canadian. I think it's a stretch trying to get someone to care about a bunch of guys who, admittedly, won a game against some great US college players, but let's be honest: it was a one-off. They were never going to consistently win against them. Most of those players were taken in the later rounds of the NBA draft, and spent their careers in Europe. Not very exciting or interesting, in spite of the fact that they happened to grow up in the same country I did. Basketball is getting exciting now because Canadians are getting good at it. |
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I just can't see your ignorance of history being the basis of your argument. You're total dismissal of European and South American basketball tells me you don't know much about basketball. Sorry to be blunt, but some of the stuff you're saying is severely ill informed (to say it politely). |
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Now how does this disprove that basketball was never more than an eccentric niche sport in Canada until 1996? |
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I'm gonna bow out on this one because you've obviously bought into the Canadian inferiority complex/America is the greatest attitude which is ironically so 1980s. Who was it said, 1980's called... they want their stereotype back. :) |
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