I remember it as if it were yesterday. It’s one of those ‘where were you when…’ moments. I sat with co-workers in the audio-visual department at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. We huddled around a 17-inch TV screen. The signal was coming from halfway around the world. But we felt as if we were right there, because Foster Hewitt made the call:
“Henderson has scored for Canada!” he shouted.
Of course, it was the 1972 USSR-Canada Summit Series and hockey player Paul Henderson had just scored the most celebrated goal of his career – the winning goal against the Soviet national team. In so doing, he had etched his name, the series and the Canadian maple leaf symbol on the front of his jersey into the consciousness of a generation. My generation. For the first time since the Centennial in 1967, I guess, people right across the country felt proud. We partied. We screamed ’til our voices went hoarse. We even admitted we were suddenly, well, patriotic.
For younger Canadians, the stunning run down Cypress Mountain by moguls skier Alexandre Bilodeau, last Sunday, became their patriotic moment. Outracing his rivals – Dale Begg-Smith from Australia and Bryan Wilson from the U.S. – Bilodeau (like Henderson) had etched his name into the record books.
But the 22-year-old did something greater than that. He lifted the monkey from Canadians’ backs. He earned the first ever Olympic gold medal won by a Canadian on home turf. What’s perhaps more important – at the medal presentation ceremony in Vancouver Monday night – he attracted 22,000 Canadians who cheered, jumped and even sang “O Canada” out loud. He made Canadians very proud.
But wait a minute! This wasn’t right! This wasn’t in character!
In fact, according to the media mavens – principally U.S. TV commentators and the British press – who are attending and covering the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, such behaviour by Canadians was not in keeping with what they expected. Canadians weren’t supposed to be demonstrative. They’re not supposed to wear their hearts on theirs sleeves. Not only that, but according to one British scribe, Canadians weren’t supposed to be lusting for medals at all. They weren’t supposed to win.
“Implor(ing) its athletes in an initiative aimed at ensuring the host nation finishes at the top of the medals tables at these games,” a Guardian newspaper reporter wrote, “came across as distinctly un-Canadian.”
Of course, the Guardian reporter was referring to “Own the Podium,” the official Canadian campaign underwritten by government funding to finance the country’s Olympic athletes to win more Games medals than ever before – 30 they hope. And why not? Didn’t the Italians hope for that in Turino in 2006? Or the Americans at Salt Lake City in 2002? Or, more appropriately, won’t the British in London in 2012?
Perhaps even more to the point – which the British journalist failed to report – Canadians have a much wider view of winning medals than most. While eager to criticize Canadian athletes and citizens for their outpouring of enthusiasm, the Guardian reporter failed to mention that moments after his gold medal victory at Cypress, Alexandre Bilodeau dedicated his victory to his older brother Frederic, who has cerebral palsy.
“Growing up with a brother who’s handicapped you learn so much,” Bilodeau told the Toronto Star. “He’s got the right to complain. He never complains. We can learn so much from those people.”
How much more Canadian can a victory speech be? And then there was Kristina Groves’ bronze-medal finish at the Richmond Olympic Oval for speed skating. On Sunday, the 33-year-old competitor from Ottawa managed to fend off many of the world’s accepted leaders. She still captured Canada’s first bronze medal in Vancouver in the 3,000-metre race. And did she take full credit herself? No. She credited the spectators at the Oval saying they lifted her to the bronze.
“Especially on the corners,” she told the press, “they made me want to dance on my blades.”
I remember interviewing Diane Jones Konihowski, Canadian pentathlete at the 1976 Summer Olympics, where Canadians were shut out of top spot at the medal podium. She was considered a gold-medal contender. But she didn’t have the psychological or financial benefit of “Own the Podium.” In front of the hometown crowd at the Big O in Montreal, Jonesy said she just couldn’t deliver.
“In the high jump (one of the five events in the competition,)” she said, “I felt as if I was jumping with the entire nation on my back.”
So, I don’t have any problem with patriotic Canadians cheering their Olympic heroes on. I don’t see the damage the U.S. and British media see. If the shoe were on the other foot – as it was in Salt Lake City and will be in London – it’s no different. Hometown pride is natural and acceptable.