I don't think the person you quoted has any idea either.... the 'own the podium' was for Vancouver in 2010. It started the Olympics before that because we had some weak showing for an Olympics we were about to host. Thats my idea anyway...
Pay attention to my wording. It wasn't inaccurate in anyway.
I stated: "This has been the kind of message for over 50yrs. Really the gain the podium type programs started well before the 76 Summer Olympics"
The impetus to get Canada more competitive started very grass roots with Participaction, with revolutionizing Phys-ed approaches and making it fun, striving to get kids involved, Missives like putting the fun in fundamentals and constant advertising. They had exercise advertisements on regularly.
Fundign for athletes of course was made a priority prior to the 76 Olympics. It wasn't the intent to get zero golds and limited medals. The program took awhile to find some success. Still, Greg Joy was one of the best Canada olympics stories ever.
You were right about how tough the standards to achieve those awards were. I was a good athlete back then who played numerous sports and was always one of the better players on every team. I can remember doing that program for about 4 years in phys ed and never achieving better than bronze. That would never fly today, lol.
I never got gold but had Silver and Bronze patches. I was lucky and naturally gifted. I could do situps like crazy as a kid. Decent on the arm pull and a pretty good runner. I remember doing chin ups and that being hard to get the medal for that.
In our neighborhood we were always running around or playing or cycling or whatever so the athleticism came easy. Sitting in a class for several hours a day came hard. I was the type that always wanted to be outside, still am.
To think we used to get detention or the strap for playing soccer outside and not wanting to come in and wanting to play longer. We would stay out an hour longer just playing and we'd get sent to the office for it. Was worth it on a nice day. The same thing today, kids would be recognized as having ADHD or extra stimulated or whatever and would have some programming to facilitate and encourage that extra energy.