I think the Canadian media got carried away with things and drove up expectations to an unrealistic level. There was talk of winning the games. Expectations were further driven by an "Own The Podium" campaign which spent something like 120 million dollars of taxpayer funds on performance-related issues - and also on advertising telling Canadians over and over it was realistic. So people started to feel entitled to results.
It was all based on the notion that every single ranked athlete would have a personal best with no one from anywhere else doing anything outstanding. It was an everything-goes-perfect scenario.
It was all stupid IMO. We are a country of 33 million people. For every one of us there are 10 Americans and 50 Chinese. There are Norwegians and Dutch and Koreans and Austrians and Germans who have religions around Skiing and Speed Skating.
Things have been disappointing. We had a bunch of skiers who got injured and missed the games. Unfortunately, we have had quite a few times where our athletes who were ranked, like, #3 in their sport finished 4th or 5th, and not very many times where a Canadian has come out of the woodwork with a pleasant surprise.
My short answer is yes, Canada was expecting too much from our athletes. But I am still hoping for a good week this week.
