The River Green

Vancouver, BC hosted the best ever Winter games. The home athletes won more gold medals than any other country. I am so proud to be neighbors with such a welcoming people. With open arms, our Canadian friends beckoned to the world and with open hearts, made us all feel at home there.

Very rarely do I root for anyone but either the US or Dutch team. This time, it was different because Sidney Crosby was an alternate captain for the Canadian Men’s Ice Hockey team, and I can’t root against Crosby, so I had to root for him. I purchased a #87 Team Canada jersey and proceeded to raise ruckus at victory and naval gaze at (only one!!) defeat.

To understand hockey in general is to recognize that the game holds a status in Canada similar to that of religion. A sacred, honored tradition that requires no less than the devotion of most if not all of the thirty-four million inhabitants. Pittsburgh has a strong hockey tradition too, largely because of our climate, but also because 19% of ice hockey players in the XXI Winter Olympiad are or were Pittsburgh Penguins at one point or another in the past. Our former player and coach, Ed Olczyk, provided half of NBC’s color commentary during the entire Olympics. We are proud of legacy.

How could I watch Olympic hockey and not root for team Canada? And when the Gold Medal game went into overtime tied at 2, I *knew* that Sidney Crosby would break the tie and win gold for his country. Make no mistake, the first 7 minutes, 39 seconds were rough… but when he got that puck in the net, I swear, I could hear all of Canada cheering if I turned my head just so and the wind was right.

Gold wasn’t around the necks of just the men’s Canadian hockey team- the women’s Canadian hockey team won their gold medal match just three days earlier- also against team USA. In a bizarre turn of Olympic statistics, Finland won bronze in both events, so that the results were equal in both men’s and women’s ice hockey- something that has never happened.

Along with Ice Hockey, several dozen Curling games are played during the course of a Winter Olympics. I watched about fifteen round robin matches and all six medal matches. I was rooting for Team USA men’s, Team Canada men’s and women’s, Team Britain men’s and women’s and Team Norway men’s because of the pants.

Another amazing feat at these Olympics was the amount of gold won by the host country. A record was set in both the number of gold medals won by Canada in a Winter Olympics and the number of gold medals won by any other participating NOC in Winter Olympic history- 14. With amazing ease and cheers from an entire nation, Alexandre Bilodeau became the first Canadian ever to win an Olympic gold medal on home soil in men’s Freestyle Skiing Moguls. It was a magical moment. The entire XXI Winter Olympics were magical. Not to sound too corny, but I sincerely wish that Canada could host every winter Olympics from now on. These were, by far, my favorite Winter Olympics.

Labels: Olympics , sports