By Damian Inwood, The Province February 23, 2010
The boisterous and deafening barrage of Maple Leaf support at Olympic venues may have thrown Canada's athletes off their game, admit officials.
And that may be partially responsible for the county's low medal count, they say.
"We've never seen anything like that and maybe we were ill prepared to how we would react to Canadian fans really showing their colours," Nathalie Lambert, chef de mission of the Canadian Olympic team, said Monday.
"We've never seen this before."
The Canadian Olympic Committee was sifting the entrails of the first 10 days of the Games, which saw Canada standing fourth with nine medals and the U.S. almost out of sight with 24.
Before the Games, Canadian officials vowed Canada would win the most medals.
Lambert said the athletes may not have been ready for a city that has gone Olympic crazy.
"I think we definitely had some cases where nerves were not totally under control," she added.
"And that's the only sad part of all this — that some athletes with great hope and great potential didn't live up to their expectations and are really devastated right now."
Lambert said she experienced both Montreal and Calgary, and the level of frenzy was nowhere near levels seen in Vancouver and Whistler.
Chris Rudge, CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC), said Canadian athletes have never performed before "an audience so big, with so many Canadians and so loud . . . and how each athlete responds to that I don't know."
And Rudge admitted that Canada will not finish first in medals at its first home Games in 22 years.
COC sport leaders are going to look at the "adrenaline rush" that the support caused, he said.
"The size of the crowd and the level of support and the noise — I'm not sure to what degree it was addressed by each of the coaches and the team leaders."
Rudge said he still thinks Canada will get a final medals total in the 20s.
Vancouver 2010 spokeswoman Renee Smith-Valade said the $117-million, five-year Own the Podium program was designed to make sure Canadian athletes arrived at the Games believing they had everything they needed to succeed.
"We're confident that we've achieved that," she said.
Smith-Valade said the program makes sure Canadian athletes "have fire in their eyes and they'll make the country proud, no matter how they perform."
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