So it winds up today with one of the most anticipated hockey games in years if not since last week. My cynicism has been somewhat dissipated though I am hardly a bandwagoneer either. Co-opting the skills of the athletes for the alleged purity of the Olympic movement or Federal politics has fallen flat in the face of the performance and individuality of the athletes.
- Canadians really like sports: This may sound obvious but consider this observation from a BBC columnist:
Canadians are the best soundbites ever. You can take a camera out, stand on a street corner, and people will come up and ask if you want an interview. If you take it out after a hockey match you get people screaming into the camera – if you want to see fans going crazy, this is the place. It feels as though Canadians are crazy about their sport, whereas at Beijing 2008 you never really got that impression, and it will be interesting to see whether the British bury their cynicism for London 2012.
We just love watching a game. We don’t even have to win. It just has to be a good game. Did anyone really curse at the Slovaks when they almost came back to tie the Canadian men’s hockey team in the late seconds Friday night? No way. Does anyone want to see the US goalie not stand on his head this afternoon like he did last week? Not a chance. We like a good game.
- Canadians really like beer: I had no idea that one of the themes that would come out of the games was a national obsession with beer. I certainly was aware of the fondness of booze but we have had to cut off an entire city, gloried in the brassy individualism of the golden march down the street with the pitcher and then were outraged by the sexism and hypocrisy of those who would subject our women’s hockey team to a double standard or, more sillierly, actual liquor regulations.
- Canadians don’t need derivative pride: the political theory leading up to the games was that Canadians had to loosen up or even learn to express pride and excitement. It is important to note that this was stated by someone who has not generated much national pride or excitement. Canadians are very proud. We just waste it on the incidentals. Like political agendas, especially those with a heavy dose of thinly veiled social engineering. We are proud of our beer and our athletes. We are not particularly proud of bureaucrats and businessmen who come up with odious claims to placing success above all things, including being a good host to the world’s athletes.
- Canadians do not need to and have not become more patriotic: Nor are they less patriotic. Patriotism is one class of pride. Politicians often fail when they fail to know when to follow and following Canadian’s comfort level with their relationship to the nation is vital. This is one of Mr. Harper’s key failings. In a way it is like he is a visitor from some other Commonwealth nation mostly like Canada, the Royalist rump of Idaho perhaps. He expresses a sort of Canadian insecurity and neediness when he suggests some sort of national failing in emotional expression. Has he never heard people (falsely) trash Americans because of our (allegedly) superior health care system? Has he never heard early middle aged men regale each other (again) over past hockey games watched on TV, over the night the Blue Jays won or over the other night the Blue Jays won? Has he never noticed the silence of the crowd at a Remembrance Day service? If patriotism and pride in sports are related then we must be less because we did not do as well in cross-country skiing, because our ski jumpers suck. Like most Canadians, I can live with it.
- Luge can be too fast. It is telling that the upper starting spot for the luge was never used in these races for which it was designed. The headline reads “Sliding Centre must deal with Legacy of Luger’s Death” and that is the case. Those behind making it too fast have to deal with it as well. Were they also caught up in the good, better, best rush to seeing a lower number on the fastest time sheets. Did the drive to pride – the owning of the podium – mania help cause a poor design? Maybe a court case will decide that in a few years time.
- Canada is not always frozen: These were really the Spring Olympics. Late February in Canada can do either way. It rained in Vancouver and it rained here in Easlakia too. The slalom yesterday was played out on a giant 7/11 slushie which was good as half the field seem to get a faceful of the stuff as they fell half way down. The next Olympics are in Sochi, Russia. It’s going to be 15 C and sunny there today.
So, all in all it has a good event. We came third overall. We got a few more medals than last time by throwing over 100 million bucks at the program. We were officially less than gracious hosts but (apparently) non-officially inherently culturally good ones. We now have a second set of winter Olympic training centres which will likely not create the bump long term that the Calgary one caused. We are proud of beer drinking skeleton winning men as well as the women hockey players – and defend their right to have a cold one at 18 years old.
Have we learned anything else?
None