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Maybe we Canadians feel like victims in part due to the notable increase in the number of 'shade-throwers' targeting certain (key) Team Canada members? I'd suggest a 2-part reason/explanation/theory for this increase in 'shade-throwers':
Reason 1: Team Canada's recent success
Reason 2: Population size (vis-à-vis the other 'top-10' ISU federation countries)
- For the 1st(?) time ever, SkateCanada has qualified the largest team for Olympics & Worlds; and Canada is the odds-on favourite to win the 'Team Event' at the Olympics (although, admittedly in close competition with Russia).
- ⫸ Could Canada's (somewhat unexpected) recent World's success perhaps be a factor contributing to the seemingly enlarged group of 'shade-throwers'??⫷
- Canada has by far the smallest population compared to the other 'top-10' ISU skating federation member countries. In fact, with the exception of the Ukraine, all other 'top-10' federation countries have populations at least double (2×) that of Canada's - see 'multiple' column in table below.
- If we assume an equal % of skating fans in each country [yes, I know, a wildly unsubstantiated assumption]; and that the 'shade-throwers' (a.k.a. 'haters') of a particular skater (let's use Kaetlyn Osmond as example) are mostly comprised of fans from other countries (e.g. non-Canadian fans), and especially from those countries with 'top-5' world ranked competitive skaters in event disciplines that overlap with 'top-5' world ranked Canadians (...which for our example would include: Russia (4×), Japan (3×), and the U.S. (9×)); then this might help explain the seemingly over-sized group of 'shade-throwers' focused against certain Team Canada members.
- ⫸ Could it be that the Canadian fans/defenders (who don't typically take-on the role of 'victim') are simply being overwhelmed numerically!?!⫷
Estimated country population sizes (as of July 1, 2017) for the 'top-10' ISU federations
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_(United_Nations)#cite_note-6
The 'top-10' list is comprised of those countries/federations that qualified for the "team competition" at the 2014 Sochi Olympics
* indicates those countries/federations that host annual Senior Grand-Prix Series events
World Compared to CAN 'Top competitor' event Rank Country Population % of 'Total' % multiple overlap (vs. CAN) ____ ____________ _____________ _________ ______ ______ ________________ 1 China* 1,409,517,397 59.8%
3849%
38
Men, Pairs 3 United States* 324,459,463 13.8% 886% 9 Ladies, Men, ID 9 Russia* 143,989,754 6.1% 393% 4 Ladies, Men, ID, Pairs 11 Japan* 127,484,450 5.4% 348% 3 Ladies, Men 16 Germany 82,114,224 3.5% 224% 2 Pairs 21 Great Britain 66,181,585 2.8% 181% 2 - 22 France* 64,979,548 2.8% 177% 2 ID 23 Italy 59,359,900 2.5% 162% 2 ID 32 Ukraine 44,222,947 1.9% 121% 1 - 38 Canada* 36,624,199 1.6% 100% 1
- _____________ Total: 2,358,933,467 World Total: 7,550,262,101
I don't see how population relates to the hate a skater gets, especially since I'm sure there are more Canadian fans on this Board than French, Ukrainian, German, Chinese etc,. Following your logic, the Australian skaters must get the most hate from people on this forum, because it has the least number of members and a lot of members from 'competitor's country'.
You are right with your first point though. The more successful a skater, the more hate he/she gets. But that's the case with all skaters from all nationality, not an exclusive attribute of Canadian skaters.