Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Dollars for Gold!
The Olympics only come around every two years (Summer & Winter), and to have them come to your home country is the chance of a lifetime for all of these athletes competing. The "Own the podium" campaign was started when it was first announced that Vancouver would host the 2010 winter games. This program has been taking some heat for being too competitive, and un-Canadian like. Many people believe that it is strictly focusing on the medal count, when really it was a program started to help financially aid Canadian athletes so that they could be at the top of their game to represent their flag when the games rolled around. And yes, a result of this program would be more medals, but of course we want to do well at our own games. If you were to host a party, wouldn't you want to be nicely dressed? The Canadian government wanted to provide these athletes with the experience of a lifetime. It is quite an accomplishment to say you are an Olympian, but to say you won an Olympic medal puts you in a whole other category. We just wanted our athletes to have the best shot at winning in their sport.
But with all this hype has come immense pressure on many of the athletes. We have seen already when an athlete has a disappointing performance; they feel the need to apologize for letting down the nation. When really, there is no need for an apology. It just seems to be a Canadian way to apologize when things go wrong, even if it isn't our fault. But I believe that Canada is turning the corner from neutral, passive nation to a dominating one, in the world of sports! I think it's time the world starts to recognize Canada as a major power in something other than the production of wheat. Why not have it be in sports?
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Indo-Pak "Friendship" Series
The first thing this article reminded me of was the Summit Series between Canada and the former USSR during the height of the Cold War in 1972. It pitted the best Soviet ice hockey players against the best Canadian players in the world. The purpose was to finally decide which country held world hockey supremacy. The entire Canadian team was well known because they all played in the National Hockey League. Due to the “Iron Curtain” in the Soviet Union during that time period, nearly the entire Soviet team was unknown; with only rumours or myths circulating about them. Canada went on to win in a spectacular finish.
This series was originally dubbed the “friendship” series, but that is little known today. Hearing about this same concept coming to life between two countries that are currently experiencing some serious conflict seemed like the right idea. Especially since sports are seen as a universal connection. Just look at the Olympics for global unity around sports. But once I started to think more about it, there seemed to be an ever increasing amount of problems that could crop up. No one has stated that this sporting event would be geared towards creating a better connection between the two nations by having their field hockey teams start the connection. This could result in most people seeing it as a point of national pride, which could just end up heating up the friction between the two countries. I know when the Summit Series occurred, there was national pride on the line, but neither Canada nor the USSR had a previous history of war with each other. Along with the geographical location of Pakistan and India, combined with their history, this could just result in pitting the two nations against each other in another area. Hopefully I am completely wrong in my speculations, as I am naturally a tad bit of a pessimist. With any luck, this could result in a peaceful competition and lessen tensions between these two countries.
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