22-year-old Sidney Crosby from Nova Scotia put the puck past the American goalkeeper during sudden death in the final of the Men’s Hockey game, giving Canada the concluding and most prized gold medal of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. And a new face of Canada was revealed.
The painfully polite, ultra conservative, unassuming locals transformed into ecstatic, boisterous, flag waving, high fiveing patriots.
Everyday for months leading up to the Olympics they moaned. They protested the costs, whined about the congestion, belittled all things positive. And then a guy called Alexandre Bilodeau beat the Canadian born Australian Dale Begg-Smith in the men’s moguls by the smallest of margins to secure Canada’s first ever home soil gold medal.
And the bandwagon jumpers emerged! Invigorated with national pride – something unknown to Canadians prior to February – they hoisted flags, cheered on their countrymen and said “How aboot that ‘eh!”
Venues were overflowing, tickets became a scarce and valuable commodity, downtown was brimming, and Vancouver was the place to be. Sure, there was no snow on the local mountains, Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died hours before the opening ceremony, there was a mechanical fault with the lighting of the Olympic cauldron, alcohol shops were closed to prevent people from having fun - err I mean drinking – and the closing ceremony was hated by everyone, but by gosh the place was just electric.
It was Canada’s most successful Olympic games ever. Never before had they won so many Golds, never before had a host country won so many Golds, and whilst the public still seemed to mope that USA had more medals in total than Canada, they didn’t care once they had the Hockey gold medal. It was all that counted.
In 1994 Vancouver became infamous when city riots and looting broke out after the local NHL team, The Canucks, lost the Stanley Cup final. This time round the local law enforcement breathed a sigh of relief when the victory party spilled out into the streets. Everyone was happy. Everyone. Policemen couldn’t help but clap and laugh, spontaneous “Go Canada Go” chants erupted, and even a “Fuck USA” chant developed. This will unlikely be a Canada ever seen again.
Of course, being in the thick of it, I did have a nervous shuffle when I realised what would happen if Canada didn’t win the Gold. We were just shy of “Ground Zero” and our ability to flee the scene was already compromised win or lose.
We did our best during the Olympics too. We scored tickets to the opening ceremony dress rehearsal (yes, I have now seen Brian Adams perform, the number one of my things to do in Canada list) as well as a victory ceremony where the medals are officially awarded. Shona got to see a women’s hockey game, and I scored a ticket to the men’s snowboard halfpipe all without cost. Plus we had the events we’d already purchased tickets for; the curling – a drinking game that is now an Olympic sport, brilliant! Men’s 4-man bobsled and the Men’s freestyle aerials.
All the events were incredible. The bobsled was particularly exhilarating. The Australian team only managed to qualify through another country’s withdrawal and subsequently crashed in their second heat and didn’t even bother doing their fourth and final heat. But boy was I cheering them on for the 2 seconds I saw of their third heat!
Curling involved beers at 9:30 in the morning, and then supporting Sweden, since they were playing the US. An undercurrent of anti-Americanism developed during the Olympics and I say well done Canada, they finally learned to hate someone. The yanks won their match in an extra frame. Both New Zealand and Australia failed to send a team for the first time in 16 years.
And Belarus won their first ever gold medal, which we witnessed at the men’s aerials.
A lot of things didn’t go well at these Olympics. A $6 billion price tag for one. But the most important thing of all, Canada winning the Hockey Gold in both the men’s and the women’s competition made it all worthwhile.
The world’s most indirect travelers Shona and Joshua.
