Ian ConstantineCanada's Olympic Glory
March 2nd 2010 05:56
:
Vancouver Olympics: a triumph after a very shaky start
Luongo is flat out but Canada finish on top...
As the Canadian nation was preparing to skate for one last gold in the ice hockey final... the gold medal at the Vancouver Winter Olympics which most of its citizens would clearly swop for any of the other 13 triumphs... it was hard to disagree with the Canadian PM Stephen Harper's vision of a country finally coming of age at these Games.
There was also a sense of defiance, aimed at those who thought it an impossible dream to win 13 gold medals and equal the most ever won at a single Games by the Soviets in 1976 and Norway in 2002.
Own the Podium had been aimed at putting Canada on top of the table in terms of overall medals won - a target achieved by the USA who won a record 37... and Germany 29... to Canada 26. Yet the rest of the world outside North America has always recognised that the champion nation is that which wins most golds, and in this category there was no contest.
All Canadian Hero... Sidney Crosby
That last gold that Canada craved came down to the dream mens hockey final against a USA team that had taken the spoils during the group phase of the competition.
All tied up at 2-2 and going into overtime Crosby had one wrist shot at sporting immortality and he did not miss.
"You dream of that moment a thousand times growing up. But it could have been anybody else, it could have been any other guy in that team," he protested. Except it couldn't. When history came calling, it had to be Crosby. When a country's greatest sports snapshot beckoned... it could only be "Sid the Kid".
They could have heard the acclamation all the way back home in Cole Harbour, 2,750 miles across this vast land, where not a soul would have been surprised. In that town of only 25,000 population Crosby was always a 'phenom'. Smashing the family clothes drier with slapshots when he was two, skating at three, scoring goals at four. When he came back to the family home as a Stanley Cup winner with Pittsburgh a reputed 65,000 people lined the streets to see him. This is the boy who was so good, his family had to send him to Minnesota to play when he was 15 to get away from the chronic jealousy of outclassed rivals. Yet through his seemingly preordained path to glory - from being the youngest Stanley Cup-winning captain to an Olympic match-winner - what the country has loved most about Crosby is his self-effacement... for he seems a very Canadian hero; as unassuming and workaholic off the ice as he is rock hard and driven on it. Not the faintest whiff of scandal attaches to him.
So having commenced in tragedy the Vancouver Winter Games end in triumph.
The weather improved, the spectacle was enormous, the drama was breath-taking and the crowds magnificent. As Jacques Rogge, the International Olympic Committee President declared: This is a city that really has embraced the Olympics like no other city before.
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