“There’s no reason for Americans not to like triathlon. It’s an “American-invented” sport, it’s been dominated by Americans, lots of Americans do it, etc.”
The fact is that, unless you are a triathlete yourself, triathlon is not a fun sport to watch. This is especially true of TV. I love this sport, but I fell asleep watching IM Brazil a while back. My family and some of my friends love going to an occasional race of mine. They would never go to, or tune into a race if I weren’t in it. There is one exception; my brother and brother-in-law would both tune in for Kona. But being as they’re both die hard Red Sox fans, they’re both a little “off”.
Population wise, Canada is 1/10th the size of the US. So, proportionately speaking, Canadians are dominating much of the long course. Why, I don’t know…
As a resident of Victoria, BC I am amazed at the number of triathletes here. The depth of talent and number of young people becoming involved is awesome. We have 2 Oly size pools in town as well as a number of 25M pools. Any time of day, 7 days a week they are in great demand. Simon, Peter and Lori have given of themselves to the local tri community which has been very influential. The Canadian National Triathlon Team is located here as well are a number of International athletes such as Greg Bennett and Laura Reback and a few unnamed Americans I’ve seen lurking around!
Victoria truly is a great place to train as a professional or age grouper wanting a balanced life. Wait a few more years, you ain’t seen nothing yet!
Congratulations to Marilyn MacDonald. - IM Malaysia Winner!
Hey Mr. Tibbs, enough with the 51st state. When I was driving down to IMFL last fall I stopped for gas in Alambama (here comes the yokel stereotype) and the guy working at the gas station looked at my Ontario license plate and asked me “Ontario, where’s that state?”
As for the Canada vs. US triathlon thread, I think that it is a matter of having a few really great athletes at the same time and this type of thing goes in cycles. Success breeds more success since if you get a few real stars then some up and comers start training with them and trying to unseat them and good things happen. When that group gets too old and retires there can be a few lean years until someone new arrives on the scene to boost things up again.
I’ve lived in the the USA and Canada. Trust me that average Canadians know a lot more about the USA than average Americans know about Canada. In fact Canadians know a lot more more about the rest of the world than do Americans in general.
Heh-heh. Reminds me of “Talking to Americans” on “This hour has 22 minutes”, on the rare occasion that I get to watch it. Do they still do that segment?
before I get blasted by some americans who think I hate them here, to keep a balance, I may add this quote from a former french prime minister (during giscard d’estaing I believe)
" a year ago, our economy was at the edge of an abyss. Since then we have made a huge step forward"
I’m not trying to be insulting, but I’ve lived in both places and have visited most of the states. The further away from the CDN border, the less Americans know about Canada. Probably also the same with northeners and their knowledge of Mexico.
One thing is for certain, Canadian media covers American events regularly. American media doesn’t cover much about Canada. I remember when living on a military base in New Mexico we never heard anything about Canada on the news. Same when we lived in Indiana. Obviously this is likely because the US is a bigger country in the world that we hear more about you than you do about us. But I gaurantee you 99% of Canadians can name the American president. A much smaller % of Americans can name the Canadian prime minister.
Also I didn’t mean to insult southerners, but other than Florida, where many Canuks winter vacation, southerners I’ve met seem to know the least about Canada.
You only met one dumb Canadian ? Man, you should come up to Ottawa and check the circus here in Parliament. You’ll find more than one dumb Canadian there :-). Or show up to a triathlon. Likely to find a whole field of dumb Canadians. After all, we really should be playing hockey or curling, eh ?
I lived in Montreal some years back…was there in 1993 when the Canadian won the Stanley cup, went out to celebrate with friends on Ste Catherine…
oh boy did I see a lot of dumb canadians!
Most Americans will happily admit that they know little about Canada. Many Canadians think they know a lot about the US because they have been to Detroit a few times, spent a few weeks in Florida, and read/listened to the Canadian media bash the US. It seems in the last fews years the Canadian media has taken to gloating about how much better Canada is than the US (an inferiority complex maybe?) In my view, much (or most?) of what Canadians think they know about the US is dead wrong, especially when it comes to issues like health care, crime, and politics. (BTW, I am a Canadian who has lived in the US for 12 years. I spend as much time as I can in the summer in the most beautiful part of Canada - Nova Scotia).
I also have lived both places. I agree that the farther you get from the border the less people know about Canada. I would imagine however that the farther south you go, the more Americans know about Mexico.
There is an appalling lack of education about Canada in the US, given we are one of the US’s largest trading partners you would think it would be different. On the other hand, I am becoming more and more concerned about the Americanization of Canadians and our own lack of knowledge about Canada.
On the other hand, I have friends moving to Albany, NY from Calgary, Alberta for a great career opportunity. He originally declined even a first interview because, “He didn’t think he could take living in New York.” In his mind anywhere in NY State was as much a part of NY City as anywhere else.
“A guy from Alabama goes into an establishment and orders a bowl of grits. The guy behind the counter says, “You must be from Alabama.” Highly incensed, the man retorts, “Why do you say that? Just because I ordered grits you assume I’m from Alabama? What if I ordered linguine? Would you think I was Italian? If I ordered sausage would you think I was Polish?” The man behind the counter says, “No, not necessarily.” “Then why do you assume I’m from Alabama?” “Because this is a hardware store.””
From the late, great Southern humorist, Lewis Grizzard
The really interesting statistic is not which country has more talented triathletes, but rather why is it that Canada has 2.5x more triathletes per capita than the U.S.?
There are roughly 1/10th as many citizens but about 1/4 as many triathletes in Canada as in the U.S. – clearly more “doers” than “watchers” in the Great White North.
This question is clearly framed by a social scientist.
There is no aggregate of anything; all that exists is the instantaneous experience of single individuals. So, saying that Canada is better at triathlon than America is ludicrous, but to say that you, at this moment, are a better triathlete than I am makes perfect sense.
Clearly, this question was posed by a communist (i.e. Canadian).
