Well, the 20th Winter Olympic Games are now complete, and it was an incredible time to cheer on the Canadians. 24 medals and a third-place finish, an incredible feat. Not only that, but Canada finished fourth in 13 events and fifth in eight for a total of 45 top-five finishes which actually moves them ahead of the United States for second spot.
Add this to the fact that most of those fourth-place finishers are under the age of 30, and Canada has a very good chance to beat their medal record as the host country in Vancouver in 2010. And won’t it be a great feeling when Canada wins their first gold medal as a host nation. To think that Canada was unable to win a gold medal in Calgary 88 and Montreal 76, and for a while was the only nation to never win gold while hosting the Games.
Canada’s recent Olympic success is partially due to the “Own the Podium” program, which combines the government and the corporate world and gives Canada’s athletes the funding they so desperately need and deserve. I am guaranteeing (and feel free to cut this out and show it to me in 2010) a top-two finish in Vancouver, and we will finish ahead of the United States.
Yes, there were disappointments in Torino, but for every men’s hockey team loss there was a surprising gold from cross-country skier Chandra Crawford and for every event in which Jeremy Wotherspoon finished out of the medals, there was Cindy Klassen, a former cut from the National women’s hockey team, who shattered the mark of three medals in one Olympic Games with her five and already holds the record for most career medals by a Canadian with six. Did I mention she’s only 28?
The Olympics are always a time to be patriotic but when I see our medal count just one behind the United States, I can’t help but feel so proud to be Canadian. As someone who could never come close to participating in the Olympics, I just have so much respect for the athletes who perform so well on the world’s biggest stage.
I am one of those people who go to The Bay and buy the red and white apparel that the Olympians wore in Torino, and I lost plenty of sleep waking up at 7 a.m. to watch the latest happenings live. But when I saw outstanding performances from a man named Duff and a group of women hockey players and when I felt compelled to cheer for an athlete who went to McGill, I realize it was all worth it. When our amateur athletes stepped onto the top step of the podium, it just reinforced in my mind what the Olympics are all about – they are about Clara Hughes and Francois Louis-Tremblay not Joe Sakic and Kris Draper.
I wasn’t even fazed when I heard that Russia beat Canada and that the men’s hockey team would not win a medal. Maybe it will force the NHL to rethink everything Olympic. However, when I heard that the Swedish women’s hockey team beat the United States and was going to face Canada for gold? I believe, like everyone else in Canada, that it single-handedly saved women’s hockey as an Olympic sport, and as a fan of the game of women’s hockey I was ecstatic.
And when Brad Gushue beat Finland’s Markku Uusipaavalniemi. I’ve got nothing. I just always wanted to type Uusipaavalniemi.
G’Oh Canada indeed.
