Defining Moment Day 16

Okay – so we didn’t Own The Podium..

We just owned the top of it..

My oh my – what a gold rush – capped off with a triple header day in Vancouver.

Canada’s first three gold medal day in Winter Games history and now our country possessing more gold medals than any other nation.

How did we do it?

As Kevin Martin, skip of the Olympic champion men’s curling team might say – Canada decided to “Hurry Hard”..

Gold in curling. Gold in long track mens pursuit. And gold in parallel slalom snowboard with Jasey-Jay Anderson capping off a three-rific Saturday.

It was an incredible day for Canada riding the momentum which was started when moguls mogul Alex Bilodeau last week became the first Canadian to win a gold medal on home soil. Once the faucet was turned on – the gold just kept pouring out. 

This metallic medal momentum took a serious swing over the last week of the Games and Canada has been riding the golden mojo like never before.

So we won’t finish on top of the medal standings as our sports leaders had hoped – but that’s not to diminish the performances of so many of Canada’s great young athletes.

Yes there have been some dissappointments – there always are – but there were certainly many more who did as expected and others who completely shot for the moon.

25 medals – 13 of them gold – is a new Winter Games standard for this nation and there’s still one more gold out there if the men’s hockey team can beat the United States on the final day and in the final event of the Olympics.

It won’t be easy – especially against a young American team that surprised Team Canada earlier in the tournament. The USA is riding the hottest goalie in the world right now and the Canadian forwards are going to have to get in his mask and crease alot more than they did during the round-robin loss.  You don’t have to do something stupid – you just have to disrupt his vision and line to the puck. It doesn’t matter what it looks like in the highlight reel – a goal is a goal.

Yet there are serious questions for Team Canada. Can Roberto Luongo outplay Ryan Miller? Can the Canadian defense handle the super quick American forwards? Will the real Sid the Kid show up? And will the pro-Canadian crowd be a factor?

Prediction – 5-2 Canada.  That’s not my passport talking. It’s just that this men’s hockey team has been galvanized by what all of these other young Canadian athletes have done at these Games and they too are carrying some mojo into the final game. The two best things that happened to them – their loss to the Americans and the fact that Slovakia gave them a scare in the semis. Two wake-up calls that were necessary.

So one day to go. One game to go. One gold to go.

And then we can put a bow on what has been an amazing two week present – the best Winter Olympics ever.

In so many ways.

As Canadians, I know we often get criticized for being too nice.

For sometimes being not as patriotic as our flag-waving neighbours to the south.

For being too contrite.

Hey we are – what we are. 

We’ve always been proud – we just don’t have to stand up and scream it to the world.

But hey, these Winter Games have shown a different side of us.  Not a dark side but a red and white side where we can paint our faces, wave our Maple Leaf,  proudly tatoo Canada on our forehead and still say please and thank you to a stranger.

So what if we’re nice? So what if we have a tendency to be overly apologetic…

Excuse us for being Canadian. 

Sorry world – we’re kickin’ some golden butt..

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