Holy Crap !!!!! I hope Adam can recover mentally from this for tomorrow ,I wish him all the luck .

same here, hard to believe and you could tell he was totally disappointed with his results. I hope he recovers tomorrow.

He didn't look strong at all in that last 500m. He almost looked a little lethargic. Paddling pretty slow, with not a lot of power.

leave the guy alone, he'll regroup and if he doesn't its all good, the guy already has 2 medals from athens. Canada should be still proud of him. He'll probably be back for London 2012 anyways.

and besides give props to thomas hall for his bronze in the C-1, 1000. Wicked race. I saw it live. Damn im sleepy.

I never said that I wasn't proud of the guy. He had a bad race, it happens. Just a really crappy time for it. Let's see him bounce back tomorrow & smoke the 500m field!

Come on Adam!

I never said you weren't proud of the guy but we should saying stupid crap like "OMG ...8th", getting to the olympics is hard enough

sorry i meant to say we should stop saying "OMG..8th"

well this forum is nothing compared to the beating he is taking here


http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/story/2008/08/22/olympics-yourview-avk.html

It's fine to be shocked and disappointed for Adam. He's paddled so well this year and this isn't the result he (or we) wanted or expected.

The way he looked into the camera and aplogized says to me he's feeling the weight of other people's expectations. To do his sport the guy lives like a vagabond, makes all kinds of sacrifices and suffers incredibly through coutless hours, weeks and months of training... and yet he feels compelled to apologize to Canadians when something doesn't go right!?! He doesn't owe us a damn thing.

Unfortunately this disappointment just adds pressure for the 500. I hope can get a decent sleep, wake up tomorrow with a clear mind and, for nobody other than himself, deliver the kind of effort he can live with for the next four years. Win or lose he's a class act and a great inspiration.

Every athlete has a day where nothing goes right, no matter how hard you try.
Whatever the reason, and we've all been there - no excuses.

And, for fans that think he should have medalled/won the K1-1000.
Take a look at the C1-1000 - Andreas Dittmer was 8th as well, and he qualified 2nd overall going into the final.
Gold and Silver C1-1000 Medalist, and he wasn't even a factor in the race.

Comments on the CBC forum look overwhelmingly positive.

http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/blog/sports_commentators/larry_cain/post_5.html#more

the post race interview reporter was an idiot. I know you're a reporter and you're supposed to at least sound unbiased but she could have approached it with at least a little more sensitivity. She was damn cold like a Canadian winter.

i'm suprised adam didn't walk away or smack her, i would have (im just joking). He's a class act and answered with humility.

I'm going to go with de-hydration.
Sometimes it can sneek up on you.
Even a loss of only 2% at that level will be enough to provide a performance drop.
It's hard to explain why Van can paddle and keep on Bryants tail for 750m and then die.

things happen..anyone see what happened to Andreas Dittmer? 7th in the 1000m final and did not even qualify for the 500m.

Dittmer is near the end of his career. I'm not surprised to see that he wasn't a medallist. Adam still has many years of competing and winning ahead of him, and I would not count him out at all for the 500.

This is hard on Adam because he talks big. He's put a lot of this pressure on himself with his not always PC outspoken style.

I just watched the interview with Adam again; he is a class act all the way, and I really don't think he has anything to apologize for.

I am however, a little bemused with the comments about the interview with the CBC reporter. I fail to understand how people can consider that 'cold'... Maybe someone can enlighten me...

Hate to bring it up but.... curse of the flag bearer?

i just watched the interview, and I did not see anything wrong with it.

It was pretty raw, and I know how i have felt coming off a boat after a disappointing race, and can only imagine what it would feel like for Adam on such a bigger scale.

As Larry Cain said, this just proves the guy is human. Best of luck to him in the 500m, he really deserves to bring home the gold.

He had almost a full boat on the field at 400m mark and just barely hung on for the silver. Probably not his best race, but congratulation on getting a medal after a very tough day yesterday.

There was something just not right in both finals...his stroke rate was lower
than Wallace.

But, that was a GREAT GREAT performance.
Even, when you are not at 100%, you can still pull out a world class effort.
And, just to show how days differ - Attila Vajda came 9th, the winner of the 1000m

I'm from the US and I have to say kayaking is far from popular here. I've been watching some of the events online and am in awe of how fast those guys are. Looking at some of the races and seeing that Adam was the Canadian flag bearer and apparently had a lot of pressure on him, it seems like the sport is much more publicized in Canada. Is this true or is it just popular among dragon boaters and such. And if you know, other countries for that matter.

I've heard that dragon boating is the 2nd most participated/well-known sport in the world somewhere and after explaining its difference from crew and that there aren't actually real dragons involved 1000 times I kind of stopped believeing that it was true.

dude, go to asia.

"I've heard that dragon boating is the 2nd most participated/well-known sport in the world somewhere and after explaining its difference from crew and that there aren't actually real dragons involved 1000 times I kind of stopped believeing that it was true."



(Anyone understand this?)

If you haven't already watched video of the 500m K1 final, do yourself a favour and go to www.cbc.ca/olympics/ondemand/

It's on about Page 7, I think.

The race is good, if a little disappointing as Adam fades from 1st by a boat length to 2nd at the wire, but the post race interview is incredible! What a clinic in honesty, humility and sportsmanship. He hits every note perfectly, and it's totally genuine.

I've been impressed with Adam since first seeing him in Athens (I won't claim to have heard "boo" about him before then) but now I am REALLY impressed by him as an athlete and a role model.

Congratualations, Adam. You are a great athlete and a complete class act.

Read that article. Very eloquent and very appropriate.