It was an Olympics of great highs,and a tragic low. The highs featured the courage of Joannie Rochette, skating into the hearts of the entire world, by channeling her gut wrenching grief, into a medal winning performance in figure skating. Similarly, Team U.S.A.’s men’s hockey team, completely overwhelmed on paper compared to Team Canada, put on as gritty a performance as an underdog could ever hope for. With 35 or so million Canadians, hoping the Americans would fall flat on their faces, they got off the floor, or in this case the ice, and just like in the Sylvester Stallone “Rocky” film, they fought fearlessly, and forced the home team, on home ice, to overtime, and it took one of hockey’s greatest young stars, Sidney Crosby, to extinguish the Olympic flame of the very feisty red,white,and blue. Led by goalkeeper Ryan Miller, a true M.V.P. in every sense of the word, the team assembled by U.S.A. general manager, Brian Burke, scared the maple syrup and Molson's beer right out of an entire country,by forcing hockey’s greatest superpower to the brink. It was probably the greatest American hockey achievement outside of the 1980 “Miracle On Ice” of 1980, at the Winter Games of Lake Placid, with the United States upsetting the heavily favored Soviet Union. A comparison of the Canadian and American rosters,outside of the goalies, would indicate the vast difference in depth and strength of the two countries personnel. Although coach Ron Wilson of Team U.S.A., had his doubters because of his Toronto Maple Leafs being near the very bottom of the N.H.L.’s over-all standings, he has show again, that when given some decent talent, he can help a team achieve something special, and this U.S.A. team, won more than a silver medal. Their inspiring performance, should be enough to capture the hearts of any American sports fan, whether they follow hockey or not.
Briefly mentioned in the closing ceremonies, the Vancouver Winter Olympics will also be recalled for something way more important than any medal, and that was the tragic death of Georgian men’s luger,21 year old Nodar Kumaritashvili. By the time the games wound down, there was hardly any discussion of this awful mishap. The level of difficulty of the course, and especially its speed near the bottom, was a topic of concern for several athletes who raced on it, just after the horrific accident that took his life. It was pretty sad that immediately after his passing, driver error was being mentioned by investigators as the likely cause of the accident and his premature end. The number of spills on this course, and the death of Kumaritashvili, indicate that some changes will have to take place in the regulation of this sport.
Canadians got a solid gold reminder of the importance, of how winners never quit, and quitters never win. As opposed to being shut out of gold medals, as this country was at the Calgary Winter Games of 1988, and the Summer Games of Montreal in 1976, the host countries Olympians set a Winter games record, by capturing 14 gold medals. Although Canada didn’t “Own The Podium” as their Olympic administrators had suggested they might, they at least dominated the most cherished podium prize. The actual “owning” of the podium was done by the United States, with an overall total of 37 medals. Germany also had an outstanding overall performance, with 30 medals in total, 10 of them being gold, second overall to the Americans, with Canada finishing third highest at 26.