What do you call it when the host walks away with all the gold medals?
March 11, 2010 2:00 PM
With a Vegas-like show of Canadiana and an Avril Lavigne concert, the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver came to a close. With the dust still settling from the nationwide party following Sidney Crosby’s overtime goal to win the men’s hockey gold medal and put Canada in the Olympic record book, the time has come for us to evaluate this year’s Olympics.
It started with tragedy, the death of Georgian luge athlete Nodar Koemaritasjvili came before he even had the opportunity to march into the opening ceremonies with his countrymen. The team withdrew from the Olympics, after attending the opening ceremonies wearing black armbands.
The opening ceremonies themselves didn’t go off without a hitch, with the hydraulic system failing to raise one of the pillars on the Olympic cauldron. The outdoor Olympic cauldron, though it did have all of its pillars, didn’t escape criticism either. Fans flocked harbourside to see the flame, only to be disappointed by a chain link fence that kept them far from the Olympic symbol.
The weather was warm, and events had to be postponed due to rain and lack of snow. A facility at Cypress Mountain was deemed unsafe for spectators and thousands of seats had to be eliminated.
The British press panned Vancouver, saying that was in danger of earning the title “the worst games ever.”
With the home country’s medal count far from what was promised by the end of the first week, Canadians began to question Own the Podium, the program that directed millions in funding to the Canadian Olympic team and helped develop special technology and training strategies designed to help us win the gold.
In the end, it seems that all Canadians really needed to do was follow Nikki Yanofsky’s lead and believe. In the second week, Canada hit the mother lode, ending up with the most Olympic gold medals earned, not just by a host country, but ever in Olympic history.
All through the Olympics, Canadians were finishing higher in the standings than ever before. In the end, Canada finished with 26 medals, two higher than in our outstanding performance at Turin in 2006.
By all accounts from athletes and coaches and people at the games, everybody, it seems, but a few reporters, the games were phenomenal.
The courage shown by Canadian skater Joannie Rochette, who went on to win a bronze medal in the wake of her mother’s sudden death, was inspiring.
The journey to the gold medal game and overtime win by the men’s hockey team was sensational. Kevin Martin and his curling rink cruised undefeated through the entire Olympic tournament and the forced stoppage of play to listen to the entire arena spontaneously sing ‘O Canada’ in the last end of the gold medal game made the most modest of fans swell with national pride.
The Olympic Games let Canada show the world that we can be the best. We showed the world our beautiful country; we showed the world that we can pull off the world class event of world class events.
Not only can we host the event, but we can walk away with the most crowned winter Olympic champions ever. With the Vancouver Olympics over, British press be damned, there is nothing else Canadians can say but that it was a success.
