kingpin_19
Registered User
Slay said:Canada is the 2nd largest country in the world and it is pretty "hilarious" that Canada doesn't have much exept hockey.
You don't quite know what you are talking about. Russia is very good in a lot of sports. Soccer and basketball are the only "major team sports" that suits well with your statement (rugby counts?). Summer countries dominate soccer, Brazil particulary, it has more population than Russia and don't have much except soccer and volleyball.
Russia is always a medal contender in Volleyball (#1 team in the world rankins 2 years ago.
imho, top 2-3 team at the moment with huge potential), in Water Polo (Hungary is the best, then Serbia and Russia), Handball (3 golds of the last 5 Olympics mean something). Plus Hockey and Bandy.
Not to mention Russia develops almost every major sport and is always one of the favourites at most of them. It is not suddenness Russia won 90+ medals at the Olympics by winning in very
different sports. That shows how good Russian coaches are (and hundreds of them work for the glory of other countries) and how much resources are used, though still not enough. A lot of resources are lacking comparing to the main rivals in many sports. And every of these countless rivals can bring this argument: "you have so big country. why don't you totally dominate this sport?".
You have WAY more people than we do...for God sakes, we have too many people playing hockey to even think those sports as important. How many handball players do you see making a million dollars a season. Water Polo players in Canada live off jobs and welfare at the same time. I don't see many Russians in the MLB, and theres only a couple in the NBA.
However, I do agree with the fact that Russia's development system is a way better than Canada's in the early stages, but by the time these kids hit junior, Canada and Russia are pretty even in terms of skill.