In 2005, the Canadian Olympic Committee started the Own The Podium program, designed to ensure Canadian athletes succeed in the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games. The program sponsored Canadian athletes competing in winter sports, spending a total $118 million on the program. However, with the unexpectedly low medal total at the Vancouver Games thus far, the program has been widely criticized.

It is currently Day 14 of the Vancouver Olympics and Canada currently sits at just over 10 medals. Remember when the Canadian Olympic Committee predicted Canada would finish first overall with about 30 medals? Seems like a long time ago. Surely this Olympics and OTP will be seen as a failure.

But has it been a failure? First of all, the program has only been around for five years, and compared to Germany, Russia and the United States, their financial support is simply a drop in the pond. Despite that, Canadians are doing better than ever in the World Cup standings of their individual sports.

Furthermore, Canada has achieved several top five finishes and high results in sports like luge and biathlon — sports which Canada has never aced.

Without focusing on athletes’ development and inspiring them to aim higher, this surely could not have happened. But, of course, this goal was always going to be a double-edged sword.

Canadian athletes, outside of the hockey players, are not accustomed to the kind of pressure they experienced\ during these Games. Athletes like Charles Hamelin, Denny Morrison and Melissa Hollingsworth were hyped as gold-medal favourites and Canadian heroes. Unfortunately, all three failed to medal and many assumed they choked when it counted.

The problem with OTP is not its lofty goal; it’s that it was marketed as a guarantee. When you consider the size of the population of Canada, and the amount of funding received, there was no way realistically Canada would win the overall medal standings.

The title also creates an overly competitive atmosphere, where, for the first time, fourth place is not good enough. At past Olympic Games, these athletes would have been praised for performing so well against the best in the world.

While the program may have been intended to serve as a rallying point for Canada, it has seemingly been used as motivation for other countries to come to Vancouver and outperform the Canucks.

“They can take that thing home. We’re just going to rent it for the month,” American snowboarder Nate Holland said, in reference to OTP.

At the end of the day, the program really has been a success, just not in the way the Canadian Olympic Committee would have liked. Perhaps the next step is to review their goals and funding to determine realistic goals for the next four years, and maybe come up with a new title.

In the meantime, what the Canadian public will need to remember is that the Olympics aren’t really about dominance over other countries. They’re about welcoming the world to your doorstep, sharing in sportsmanship and celebrating the world’s best athletes. Perhaps when people realize that, the Vancouver Olympic Games will be seen as a great success for Canada.