Day 16 - Canada is Golden

As usual you can click on this link to see all of the previous Blog posts or just read below. Enjoy!
http://bit.ly/bMw0UN
So is the lead story today the fact that Canada won 3 Golds and 1 Bronze to tie with the most Golds won by a country in the history of the Winter Olympics OR is it about Brian McKeever the nearly blind Cross Country Skier who was not picked to race in the 50km race tomorrow?
If you were Dave Perkins the Sports Editor for the Toronto Star, you would pick the latter. McKeever is an extremely talented para athlete and has dominated his sport. He made the Canadian Olympic Team this year despite his limited eyesite, but has not raced in these games. Tomorrow is the 50km mass start, but only 4 athletes may compete for their country in CC events. On Friday McKeever was left off the roster because he was clearly not of the same ilk as the four men chosen to race. While McKeever was disappointed, I'm sure he would want to be picked on his athletic merits and not out of sympathy. The other 4 athletes have earned the right to be here and should not have to think about giving up their spot to a lesser athlete because he was disabled. Mr. Perkins does not agree with me and thinks that the Cross Country Manager and Coach should be fired. Well, I think Perkins should step aside as Sports Editor, as he clearly does not understand that the Olympics is about playing the best people, it's not about sympathetic choices. All of our athletes have trained for many years to be the best they can be and to earn the right to represent their country based on their performances. The key word here is "EARN". What do you think? You can read Perkins' article at this link and please leave him a comment:
http://bit.ly/9llL7b
I will now set aside my soap box and return to what I saw and experienced today. The weather improved a bit today and was not as wet as the past few days (the glass half full version). Our long track skaters got the day off to a flying start with a victory in the team pursuit. This was then followed up by a come from behind victory by Jacey Jay Anderson in the Dual GS, a Bronze in Bob Sleigh and then Kevin Martin extinguishing the 'Hot Pants' from Norway. They were all incredible performances that have vaulted us up the Medal Standings. We may not 'Own the Podium' but we have certainly acquired a 4-Year Lease on it!!!
Whistler's three venues were bustling with large crowds today and the Athlete's Village was busy all afternoon and evening. For the T-3 drivers, we would pull up in front, load with 3 to 6 people, drive into the village, come back and do it again. I think I made 8 trips over a 4 hour period driving about 160km. Among others, tonight I had Italian and American Women Bob sledders, Latvian 4-man Bob Sleigh, 2 Austrian Cross Country skiers, a large Korean delegation and one of Canada's Male downhill skiers. The Latvians were funny, they wanted a ride to the liquor store to buy Canadian Whiskey and then a ride back to Athlete's Village to find Canadian Women. I have a funny feeling that their pick-up techniques were not Olympic caliber (ha).
Finally, I wanted to share the "line" of the day. I was doing my laundry early this morning and as I was walking down the corridor I saw this sullen looking young man (early twenties) talking to a young woman. His body language clearly showed that he was sad and the only piece of the conversation I heard, was him saying "...yeah I'm bummed. I lost my zigzags last night..." If you don't understand his despair ...find a young college student to explain it for you ...or B and M ...you can ask J!!
Don't forget to wear RED tomorrow and to cheer Team Canada on to victory. It should be a great game and a perfect ending to these 2010 games.
Enjoy!!!
sent from my BlackBerry device
Best regards,

Greg
M 416-347-1545