Being a Canadian I’m proud of the efforts by our athletes have brought so far. I think it’s an affirmation that the powers enabling the Olympic team understand that Canadians can compete and win in winter sports. Seems silly right? All you have to do is go back to 1992 or 1988 to see how little importance these athletes held in terms of support.
Right now though something seems odd, a sense that feels a lot like 2006 and Turin. There are some sports that seem to not have the faith or the confidence by either Canadian media, fans, or the Olympic team itself.
Right now, and I mean this in a joking way, if Canadians fail to medal in curling I’d make them reimburse the COC. I’ll apply that same standard to ice hockey too as really there should be no excuse, hot goalies or not. I just feel there are doubters around making noise because they have a forum to do so. Opinion is mixing with projection and fact. That’s one guy’s opinion though right? Insert tongue-in-cheek sarcasm mark.
So what’s up your butt Tessier?
In my view the Olympics are a different type of sport and event. Today when I saw the Russian skier with a broken ski and the Canadian rush out to give him one so he could finish the race, in front of his fans and country-people I was touched. Would a Canadian hand a Russian a stick in hockey in the dying minutes with a 4-goal lead? I doubt it. When you see the small things that have no real bearing on the medal standings but say more about sportsmanship, character, and care it makes me wonder about the structure of the games. I don’t want the glamour and hype of professional hockey taking over the nation’s interests. Yes I enjoy Olympic hockey, at least after the pre-lims, but the hype is getting to me more than ever. I think it overshadows the other athletes, at least for the viewers. The charm of the Olympics is that you see sports and people that you so rarely encounter in our regular lives. Media goes to where the money is and that’s what gets covered to the extreme now. It’s not about fault or blame, more so it’s understanding that as Canadians, or any other nationality, we owe our athletes a bit more than ‘well hockey is not on…’
National pride is alive and well, if not even producing some chest thumping on Twitter. It just seems no one is going to get too excited until Canada gets towards the medal rounds in hockey.
At the last games, albeit hosted in Canada, it took an unscripted and surprising moment for the country to lets it’s guard down. It was John Montgomery grabbing a pitcher of beer and gulping it down as he walked through Whistler village as a gold medal winner. The party was on and it was okay to be ‘us’ in our country. With success coming faster and in greater medal quantity and rank this game, there is still an uneasy if not uptight feeling; the ‘what about hockey’ thoughts. They persist and not one game has happened for the Canadian squad.
If Canada does not win gold in either the men’s or women’s ice hockey, and that is a very real possibility, does that result overtake the rest of the team’s? Does it shroud everything else that has been accomplished? That’s the concern I have right now and if our World Junior Hockey Championship aftermath(s) is any indicator a less then perfect hockey result could mar an excellent team effort once again.- just like Turin. Yes heroes emerged but the talk was of one team’s failure. The heroes, those unsung people in a life that is devoted every day to competition with no spotlight and no million dollar or set-for-life contracts, they were sent packing.
As Canada comes to terms that it can produce a greater amount and variety of winter athletes than hockey players it needs to put them on the same podium or mantle with the same frequency. Right now we’re still star struck by our professional hockey players and the Olympics is just so much more than hockey. As for those curlers…they’ll just have to accept my over the top expectations.