The 2010 Winter Olympic Games are now complete.
Excluding the Paralympics of course, which start up March 12.
I thought our nation put on a pretty decent show for the entire length of the games too. Putting just about everything Canadiana out there for review and as we always seem capable of doing, even poking a little good natured fun at ourselves along the way.
Right off the top, extreme kudos to British Columbia and her people. Not just for representing Canada with class, elegance and style, but obviously also working your butts off getting through the many difficult challenges that were constantly thrown at you, during the games themselves.
Here are a few interesting numbers from the games, that I thought deserved a little attention.
14 - The number of Gold Medals Canada won. More than any other nation has
ever won in a Winter Olympics.
26 - The total number of Medals we won. Our best result ever.
37 - The total number of Medals won by the U.S.A.. A spectacular result and also a record for the Winter Olympics.
19 - The reported number of Canadian fourth place finishes during the games.
0.60 - The number of seconds Devon Kershaw missed a medal by, after cross-country skiing for 50 kilometers yesterday. You can throw in 1.60 seconds if you want to as well, since that's how much he missed the Gold Medal by! After what can only be described as 50 kms. of Hell on snow, all five of the Athletes involved in that finish showed just how amazing they are. Simply put, the best race finish for a Medal I think I've ever seen!
34,018,371 - The approximate number of Canadians glued to a television set somewhere, at around 3:15pm ET Sunday February 28, 2010.
3 - The number of hours some Canadians lined up and waited at local bars. All hoping to get the best seats in the house to watch the game with a crowd of like minded individuals that would soon gel into one voice, singing one song.
1 - Collective sigh of relief from a Hockey crazy nation, as Sidney Crosby slid the puck past Ryan Miller in overtime.
2 - The number of very proud Canadians in this household.
We don't always wear our pride on our sleeves, it's just not the Canadian thing to do. Oh we'll talk up a storm if it comes right down to it, as we're not willing to let anyone beat down on a fellow Canadian. But those occasions are almost always in response or more correctly, in defence of our national pride. Perhaps today and possibly for the next couple of weeks or so, that just might change. As water cooler discussions take place and conference calls are made, I hope that today we Canadians stand just a little taller, or have that gentle little swagger in our step and voices. Our athletes should have made us proud and our Olympic hosts out in B.C., should have done the same as well.
Today and the few tomorrows we care to extend this feeling to, should be days to carry our heads a little higher. Days that we should use to tell the World, "HEY! Did you just see what we did?" But that's not Canadian either. We'll apologize to those that had a bad time or experience at these games. Then we'll try to make it up to them somehow, some way. We'll try and fix whatever is bothering someone about the weeks gone by, hoping to keep a new found friend as happy as can be. We'll say "Sorry" for damn near anything that's happened, be it in or out of our control. It's just what we do.
But there is still one number that's as important as any other out there, and that's;
0 - The number of apologies you'll hear from a Canadian, for winning both Gold Medals in Hockey!
Being sorry and trying to help may be what we do as a people but as a nation, Hockey is still what the vast majority of us live for.
Nope, I'm not sorry about your loss.
NOT ONE LITTLE BIT!And hey World, did you just see what we did!
Pretty amazing EH.My sincerest thanks for dropping by....
