Ladies Moguls – Silver. Speed Skating Ladies 3000m – Bronze. Speed Skating Ladies 1500m – Silver. Men's Moguls – Gold. Ice Dance – Gold. Men's Snowboard Cross – Silver. Ladies Ski Cross – Gold. Ladies Snowboard Cross – Gold. Speed Skating Ladies 5000m – Bronze. Speed Skating Ladies 500m – Silver. Short Track Ladies 3000m Relay – Silver. Speed Skating Ladies 1000m – Gold. Women's Bobsleigh – Gold. Women's Bobsleigh – Silver. Men's Skelton – Gold.
Not a bad list of accomplishments for the Canadian Olympic Team after 13 days of competition. So far we've seen athletes compete injured. Come back from severe injuries to win medals, and overcome devastating personal tragedy to put in personal best performances. Pretty amazing. Considering it takes approximately 10,000 hours of practice to become really good at something, to be able to step onto a podium to receive a gold medal at the Olympics must come with a huge amount of satisfaction. We should be shouting these athletes' names from the rooftops in recognition of their hard work and determination to succeed.
Last evening after a long day of herding cats (supply teaching), I was looking forward to sitting down to see some of Canada's best and brightest compete. Much to my amazement and frustration, I saw very little of the events I was hoping to see and very little presented to me in the way of athlete profiles for sports other than hockey. Sure it was a big night for hockey. Canada vs. Russia. Considering Canada has not beaten Russia in Olympic hockey in 50 years, I can understand the hype. But let's recap the accomplishments of the Canadian Men's Olympic Hockey team so far. A couple of wins and a loss. Gold medal yet? No. Silver medal yet? Nope. Bronze medal yet? NO! The hockey team is still advancing through the preliminaries to the finals. What's with all the coverage of players who get plenty of coverage for 10 months of the year?
I hear you saying that if you want coverage of the other sports go to the newspaper or online. Yes I agree, fine. I can search it out if I want it. But why are the accomplishments of our athletes who are WINNING bronze silver and gold medals being overshadowed by the fortunes of millionaire hockey players? Why is it when I sit down to watch coverage on television that hockey is first and foremost even when the team isn't playing on a particular day. Why, on what is supposed to be the flagship network for Olympic coverage, are we wasting time on hockey commentary instead of focusing on our Olympic Champions during what is prime time for most of the country? Why are we getting so up in arms over the failure of to 'Own the Podium' when apparently we don't seem to care (at least on prime time television) even when our athletes do win?
1 comment:
It's been said by many, including two people this morning at Damascus, our local coffee shop. The men's Olympic hockey team is made up of professional millionaire hockey players that get paid to play hockey. I'm not sure how this ever was allowed to happen, as the Olympics are for amateur athletes. 20 men on Team Canada earn over 3.5 million dollars a year each. Over 120 million per year combined. To illustrate the 'wrongness' of this further, anyone that earns gold gets $20 000. A nice bonus for playing a game.
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