Time Out

As Concordia’s reliable source for university sports news, we at the Concordian usually place the focus squarely on CIS athletics.
This week, however, we have made an exception, because we feel it is important to discuss just how important team Canada’s performance at Salt Lake City was over the last two weeks.
This is not just to congratulate the men’s hockey team which did the country proud by winning Canada’s first gold in 50 years, but to appreciate the entire team.
From the lugers and cross-country skiers, to the speed skaters and aerialists, Canada’s athletes showed the world what this nation is all about.
Dedication, endurance, desire, passion, fury, fire, fight, and yes, sometimes failure.
Our olympians took to their sports with as much energy as anyone else, and they knew they had the backing of 31 million plus Canadians, not to mention every other country at the Games.
When Sale and Pelletier were robbed, America and everyone else screamed foul until they received their proper standing. When Beckie Scott won bronze in cross-country skiing -Canada’s first top-5 finish ever in the sport at the Olympics, let alone medal- the world cheered.
And when the Canadian women and men swept through Salt Lake’s E Centre and took both hockey golds, everyone was happy… even the American teams that lost.
Sure, Canadian amateur sport has its problems (it is definitely extremely underfunded and too low-profile), but it is in the efforts that our athletes put in that make it what is is: good enough for 17 medals and fourth place in the Games.
Canada must now focus on helping the athletes reach a higher goal.
Forget setting the bar low, like the COA did by wishing only for a third place finish before the games. Let’s put some major tax money into athletics instead of language police and try to finish first in Torino, Italy.
Look at the U.S. and Australia as examples. They put the dollars in and were hugely successful in the last winter and summer Olympics, respectively.
And let’s get together, wave those flags and say as a nation:
GO CANADA GO!

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