Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Olympics

Well it's winter olympics time again and Canada is it's usual throes of self-doubt. The common belief is that we are a 'winter' or 'nordic' country that should excel at 'winter' or 'nordic' sports. And of course we don't. With the exception of hockey, we are above average at best. We are not world dominators. We aren't even a nordic country, really. Most of us live at the same latitude as northern California, and the really cold parts of our country are flat like Holland, which pretty well eliminates most of the winter sports straight-off. We do have natural areas for skiing, but it's not like we ski in the same sense that the Swiss or the Austrians understand skiing. So it's not hard to see that we aren't really nordic in the true sense of the word.

And for some reason, alot of people seem to think our lack of representation at the medal podiums is somehow shameful. Somehow, as Canadians, we are supposed to excel at the winter olympics. Well, we don't. We are not complete failures, but we don't win alot of gold medals. And to me that is fine, but of course I am one very tiny, very insignificant voice.

It seems to me that the olympics are supposed to be 2 weeks every 4 years (well 2 years I suppose now that the winter and summer games are staggered) during which we as a group stop shooting at each other and generally being mean to each other. Excluding the middle east, of course. They aren't happy unless they are either blowing someone up or being blown up by someone. My point is it is a time for a world sense of community, not about who has the most medals. As Canadians we seem to have bought into the American concept of competition at every level and that self-worth is dependant solely upon how well you perform at a national or international level. American's have pie-baking competitions, folks. I think that's a bit extreme, don't you? They televise their spelling bees! Well that's a bad example, actually, since even though it is still competition there is the odd chance that someone might learn something, even if it is by accident.

All I am saying, really, is that the olympics aren't really supposed to be about the medals, but about countries coming together for a few weeks, forgetting their differences, and competing on equal footing. Sport is a common language, like music and mathematics. The rules are the same for everyone.