The Olympic Spirit

Well the games are half over already (hard to believe) and I've loved almost every minute of it so far. From the suspense of who would light the torch at the opening ceremonies (wasn't it was so diplomatically Canadian to not choose one but several torch lighters?) to the thrill of Bilodeau's first gold medal won by a Canadian on home soil, it's been a great first week.

Certainly there have also been setbacks and even tragedies. The loss of the Georgian slider and the Canadian figure skater whose mother passed away two days before she has to skate could be viewed as real dampening factors, but to me, while we would never wish for these things to happen, somehow they make the light of the Olympic flame and the Olympic spirit shine all the brighter. Why? Because when these things happen amidst the games of the Olympics it reminds us of what the games are really all about, a spirit of comraderie, competition and mutual love.

Where else can you see images of athletes congratulating each other on great performances even though they might be from countries whose governments are at war. Where else can you see an entire nation get excited and support someone they don't even know?

Much has been made over the last few days of what the media is beginning to call the failure of Canada's "Own the Podium" program. As the title implies, the goal of the program was to win more medals than any other country. With the US (at the time of this post) with a a total of 24 and Canada with only 9 and in 4th place overall, that certainly looks like that won't happen. But was the program a failure? That remains to be seen. Canada's record for most medals won is 24 in Turin in 2006. And that was with only 7 gold. We already have 4 gold in Vancouver and there are MANY more possibilities to come (Just think 2 in curling, 1 or 2 in hockey and that's already 4 more). In fact, some experts are saying Canada could still win many more medals including many golds. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir have a chance tonight in Ice Dancing, two of our women Ski Cross skiers are in the top 4 in the world and hold good chances for medals, and Saturday before the games end is a 5 medal day possibility.

So will Canada win more medals than any other country? Probably not. But can we still win more medals than we ever have before? Possibly. So let's not count ourselves out yet and let's measure success with a dose of perspective. Of course it would be nice to lead the medal count, but I hardly think a country best for medals won can be considered a failure.

Go Canada Go!