Oh Canada!

The party's over in Vancouver. I did catch Olympic fever throughout the entire 17 day competition. In the lab, people were constantly refreshing their web-browsers for up dates on the daily results. At the start of the competition, Canadians were moaning about the lack of performance from their athletes. Team Canada organizers made a very boastful prediction that Canada would take home the most medals. I love Canada (natch), but to put that expectation on our athletes is just unfair. Especially when you're competing against powerhouses like USA and Germany. The "Own the Podium" program is a good thing, as Olympic athletes are severely underpaid for what is expected of them (hmmmm, that sounds familiar). Well, everyone except NHL players. But let's not go there. When I was living in Vancouver, I befriended a lot of people from Team Canada Field Hockey. From them I admired the commitment to their sport. Especially when they were expected to train for 6-8 h/day and be paid only $50/day. How could anyone live on that? In Vancouver no less! I'm not sure what "Own the Podium" has now done for the athletes pay-wise, but at least it's bringing to light that if we Cdn taxpayers want the golden glory - we better be ready to dish out the funds to support those who compete.

Back to the Vancouver 2010 games. So then, Canada didn't win the most medals. But quality over quantity people. Canada did take home the most gold medals and broke records doing so (most gold medals in any Olympics and most gold medals by hosting country). If we complained about a gold drought on home soil, I think it's safe to say that we've got our fill now. And what a finish! Gold medal in both women's and men's hockey. I think that is probably the only thing that matters to Canada. We acknowledge that we're not perfect in many things (even trying to get the cauldron up), but when it comes to hockey - that's our game you're playing.



So congrats to the ALL the athletes. You did me proud along with the rest of Canada. Someone asked me whether there would be a holiday on the following Monday. I said "no, but whenever you see a Cdn, you'll note a small satisfied smile." People will carry that feeling around for a long time. Like the '72 summit. "With Glowing Hearts" indeed.