Well, the second best and second largest international sporting event – the summer Olympics – is over for this time around.
As in all Olympics the games provided the world with samples in the best in sports and, unfortunately, of the worst in sports as well.
One of the best moments for Canada occurred when Rosie MacLennan won our only Gold Medal in trampoline. Her golden routine was fantastic, and she’ll be the Olympic golden girl in this sport at least until the next Summer Olympics in 2016.
Of course, Canada had a number of other great moments at the Olympics such as winning the bronze medal in women’s soccer, silver in the men’s rowing eight, silver in the women’s rowing eight, Jennifer Abel and Emilie Hymans winning bronze in the three meter synchronized diving event and Ryan Cochrane’s silver in the 1,500 meter freestyle swimming race.
Some people are referring to the 2012 Olympics as the Heartbreak Games for Canada as we only won one gold, four silver and 12 bronze for a total of 18 medals.
But just remember now that Canada is a winter country and we never do really well in a Summer Olympics. And remember too that our athletes are up against the world’s best in the Olympics where it all comes down to the day of the competition. You not only have to be good to win but you have to be at your best during your event, as one misstep, one little mistake can cost you a medal.
With any luck at all our medal tally could have been a lot higher as Canada placed fourth in at least six events and fifth at least eight times.
Look, we ended up in 13th place overall, we’re up against the best athletes in the world, we’re a winter country, we have a relatively small population compared to some other countries, so to place 13th out of about 170 countries participating is not too bad at all.
Although the Olympics are fun to watch, one of the disappointing moments came in the women’s soccer match between Canada and the United States.
Canada eventually lost the game 4 to 3 and after the game, the America player Abby Wambaugh said that players should be willing to do anything to win.
Anything? Even in the realm of poor sportsmanship like urging the referee to make a controversial call against Canada that changed the game in favour of the Americans?
To me that was poor sportsmanship which doesn’t belong in the Olympic Games or in any sporting event for that matter. (See Coaster, August 14).
And what about the Canadian 4 by 100 relay team that came in third but was disqualified because one runner had apparently stepped on the line or something? Did that misstep interfere with the runner in the next lane? Did it create any advantage for the Canadian runner?
It seems like Olympic officials like to think they’re Gods and appeals can’t be won. At least one other Canadian thinks that the Canadian team should have been given the bronze medal as Elijah Porter, a 10 year old, sent the runners his Timbits hockey medal to replace the bronze they richly deserved.
While it’s not quite the same as an Olympic bronze it symbolizes the respect and admiration that Canadians have for our athletes at the 2012 Games.
Even a 10-year-old Canadian knows what the Olympic officials did in that race is wrong.
So, lets’ forget about the heartbreak now and move on from this. Hopefully, the main win of all our athletes will be that they have inspired future generations of soccer players, swimmers, divers, rowers and trampoline artists to get out, get active and participate in future Olympics.
