Way to Go, Canada!

With the end of the hockey game, the Olympics have come to a close. It was a momentous game, and Canadians from coast to coast to coast and around the world are celebrating our place on the top of the hockey world. But it was much more than that! These games (They are only games!) have captured the imagination of Canadians like never before, and we have emerged from our carefully maintained shells to celebrate our nation. This was our third opportunity to host the Olympic games, and going in, one of the challenges was that we had never won a gold medal on our native soil. Alexandre Bilodeau took care of that shortcoming, but other medal contenders were falling short.

Our sports leaders dreamed of Owning the Podium—we might not get the golds, but darn it, we were going to win more medals than the other guys. Well, by the end of week one, our leaders noticed the lack of much of a collection of medals of any colour, and, in good Canadian fashion, they began apologizing for our audaciousness. However, our athletes didn't get the memo, and the medals began piling up, a bronze here, a silver there, and then gold, and another gold, and more gold! Soon, we had almost as much gold as anyone! Wowsers! What a party! Oops sorry, we shouldn't party so much! Sorry about that! Celebration so unseemly, don't you know—not Canadian, not the Canadian way at all.

Then we achieved the twelfth gold medal. No host nation had ever achieved more! Could it be? Were we as good as others? We were tied with Norway and Russia! And then a thirteenth, no one was better than that as a host nation! Finally, when Crosby scored and gave us that wonderful overtime victory in hockey, we were the greatest! No host nation, no visiting nation, no nation anywhere had ever gained fourteen gold medals! Stand up and cheer, and never mind the tears!