Canada stacks up well in combined medals from Van 2010 and London 2012

If only the Canadian Olympic Committee had not succumbed to the siren song that is a simple slogan.

The catchphrase before the London Olympics was "top 12 in 2012." It was more of a message that Canada is more ambitious rather than a hard target. Of course, as you know, the results have been mixed. Through Day Friday Aug. 8, Canada has just the single gold medal from trampolinist Rosie MacLennan but its 17 medals (11 bronze) are tied for 12th in overall Olympic hardware. So it's a 50/50, depending on whether prefers to rank countries by gold medals (the official IOC policy) or its total haul (Own The Podium's ambition before Vancouver 2010; it shifted to the gold standard in midstream).

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There are also any number of alternative medal counts that factor in population and/or gross domestic product, so what's one more? Greater minds likely already thought of this, but what about combining the medal tallies from the Winter and Summer Olympics? Canada is a northern nation with a lot of snow and ice.

Of course, "top 10 to 12 in 2010 and '12" is too convoluted to work as a saying. But Canada comes out pretty well in that exercise.

It goes without saying this is a little self-serving from a Canadian point view. Then again, Canada would make out even better if someone with more time on her/his hands and better high school math grades than yours truly weighted both the summer and winter events 50/50. The Summer Games have many more events. You hear that, Great Britain? Your 26-15 edge would get chopped down to size tout suite. Sure, you won seven golds in track cycling, but how do you do in speed skating?

Having about one-third the medal tally of the neighbouring United States, which has nearly tenfold the population, makes our performance seem very respectable. The same goes for being seventh in golds and tied for seventh in overall medals across the past two iterations of the Games.

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What is the benefit of looking at this way? It judges Canada's Olympic program as a whole, while accounting for the challenges posed by our climate and sparse population. Incidentally, the 43 total medals thus far for the 2010-12 cycle just barely beats the 42 from the '06-'08 cycle.

Both exceed the the combined 29 from Salt Lake City 2002 and Athens 2004, suggesting the country is moving in a good direction.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Contact him at neatesager@yahoo.ca and follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.

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