Through those 2 weeks there have been some great moments. We are at 20 officially great moments with some senitmental favorites to add, but we'll save those for the "best of" entry. In today's entry, I will talk about what else, curling and hockey.
First of all curling. We've been treated (if you were watching) to some great curling matches on both men's an women's side including two great matches against China on the men's side. But Jennifer Jones has really risen to the occasion going undefeated in competition capping it off with a 6-3 win in the gold medal game and it was no doubt she was the best curler. Making some incredible shots in the tournament, and ultimately in the gold medal match, it came down to 2 key mistakes from Sweden that made the difference. But it was Jones's great play that continuely forces other teams to make incredibly difficult shots. Aside from her great play, her reaction and he inability to hide her emotions from when she couldn't hide a smile cleaning and recleaning her last rock, to watching the emotions come out as they knew the shot was good to eliminate the last Swedish rock. It's a sequence you can guartantee will be in CBC's montage when they close coverage of the games.
Not so secret highlight of the curling. Curling has quickly transferred to a yong and quite attractive sport. Thank you Russia for your team this year. Although not to fear people that think that they still have a chance to make the olympics as a 50 year old curler, people like Mirjam Ott of Switzerland are still around. Although seeing her lose the semis and her facial expression, she looked more like your best friend's mom losing than the other athletes at the game.
Now onto the biggest event of the day. Women's gold medal game. Canada winning a 4th straight gold in a dramatic 3-2 OT win. As this topic will be written about endlessly as possibly the hightlight of the games (even if the men win gold I don't see how it can be more exciting than today's game). There are a few thoughts I had on today's game.
1. Canadian woment have now won 20 straight hockey games at the Olympics including 5 straight games against the US. They can't seem to beat them outside of the Olympics, but when it matters most, Team Canada comes through. Even though today's game was the closest and the US did look to be the better team through a lot of the game they found a way to do it.
2. All the talk around women's hockey is that there just isn't enough depth and competition. I think the Swiss with their bronze medal and pushing Canada to the limit in the semi-finals shows that depth isn't that far off. Really there's not too much else that can be done than keep giving other nations experience on the world stage. With good performances, comes more funding at the grass roots level and then the sport grows. But the question I ask is, after today's game why do we want anything other than Canada/US in the gold medal match? It's a rivalry that grows and grows and always delivers and if anything, I want to see more of it. Can we just skip the round robin and go to a best of 7 Canada vs US for gold?
3. Tying in to though #2, as the women's rivalry grows so does the following. The clips from schools and bars (see deadspin's compilation) and even my work, of people stopping their day to watch the game looked as if we were watching the men's gold medal game. As much as IIHF is pushing the sport's growth internationally, it might not matter because it's growing in Canada and in the US too. This is now fully a marquee event on par with men's hockey and might as well make it a stat holiday because work isn't getting done.
4. Finally one more thought on the growth of the sport. As I was heckling back and forth with my American coworker during the game, she tried to recover from her defeat by reminding me that US is leading in the overall medal standings. And it all honestly, as much as we have a ton of pride and devotion to the olympics, it's no surprise the US has more medals as they should. I say they should purely based on the amount of money their country puts into sports and athletics. Frankly, Canada just doesn't have the money to compete at that level, but maybe if "Own the Podium" is real and we want elevate ourselves into an Olympic/sport super power, is it time we seriously examine sports scholarships to universities? This is how the US funds so many of their athletes in both summer and winter sports including hockey. As much shit as I'll talk about the US and gladly cheer in their face after winning a fourth straight gold, we really have them to thank. Not only for having a great program which pushes Canada to have a great program, but also because their funding of athletes and collegiate hockey is actually funding our players as well.
On the current roster, 7 players' current teams are US colleges including today's hero Marie-Phillip Poulin. Not to mention the other players that have now graduated and continue to play on our national team. We will gladly take their money, facilities and training to help our national team continue to have success. But should we have to have our future players travelling to the US to get the sufficient training and level of competition?
The "Own the Podium" program has funded athletes and programs $89 million dollars. Which is only about $3 for every Canadian. I know i've gotten my $3 worth from these olympics, just today alone was worth it. And I'm sure if you ask many Canadians, we are more than okay increasing this amount to continue to invest in sport. But at some point the well will run out of money and that's when collegiate sports come in. If this doesn't work, we can always have a Unicef type commercial to have people pledge to "Own the Podium". $3 is still less than a copy of coffee at a fancy coffee house.
Now I will close on a prediction. With the games coming to a close it's time to guess on who the flag bearer will be.
Top contenders
a. Denny Morrison (then having Gilmore Junio join him)
b. Virtue/Moir
c. Jennifer Jones
d. Humphries/Moyes
I'm guessing Morrison.
