Team Canada wins gold in Women's Hockey (photo: AP)

The Vancouver 2010 Olympics are now over, with the nation receiving a classic showdown of hockey supremacy in the form of the men’s gold medal game between arch rivals Canada and the United States to top things off.

A little more than a week ago, with the medal count looking very different than it did at the end of the Games, Canada’s much trumpeted and controversial ‘Own The Podium’ campaign was enduring a litany of criticisms that it had failed to produce the Olympic hardware that it was specifically designed for.

‘Arrogance,’ many said, ‘unrealistic,’ ‘overreaching,’ ‘doomed to failure,’ were among the chants coming from both domestic and international skeptics for whom the program was a contentious and decidedly un-Canadian effort to dare secure more medals for this country at a Winter Olympics than ever before.

Canada's Men's Curling Olympic champions (photo: AP)

The Federal government created OTP as a multipurpose enterprise; to infuse our athletes with more funding, to build and upgrade training facilities, to inspire the nation to believe that we could compete and win at the highest level, and to give our Olympians the best possible chance to win more medals than ever before.

Yet, after the first week of competition, with Canada sitting 4th in the medal count, such was the backlash against Own The Podium – event CEO Roger Jackson in typically Canadian fashion, was quoted as saying the program was ‘…probably unachievable.’

Admittedly, OTP was a brash departure from how this country has traditionally approached international athletics; that is, by not funding them and then sedately applauding the modest achievements of competitors who defy the odds and take home some hardware.

Canada's Women's 2 Man Bobsleigh Gold and Silver Medallists (photo: AP)

Many countries took offence at the idea that a host nation would dare to create an environment for their athletes that inspired confidence and ambition, particularly those for whom the Winter Games have traditionally meant a prodigious medal haul.

The reality is that Own The Podium represented Canada’s first serious effort to offer our athletes the same level of support many other nations have long provided their competitors, and the results have been nothing short of spectacular.

Canada has broken a Winter Olympics record for the most gold medals by a host nation with 14, and finished 3rd in the medal count.

That’s right folks; Canada has won more gold medals at these Games than any other nation, including powerhouses like the United States, Germany and Russia.

What this means is that the Own The Podium campaign has been an unmitigated success, something for which all Canadians should feel an immense pride in. Pride in our government for recognizing our athletes deserve the best funding, the best facilities and the best sense of ambition this nation can provide them with; pride in the incredible achievement of our athletes to believe that they are among the very best in the world, deserving of Olympic champion status; and pride in ourselves as a nation that can stage a world class event, despite weather conditions that were less than ideal, despite unwarranted criticisms from near and far, because Canada is a nation that has always believed in itself, no matter what the rest of the world may believe.

Canada's Short Track Pursuit Gold medalists (photo: AP)

No one at these Games better exemplified what it means to be a Canadian better than Joannie Rochette, who fought through heart-wrenching adversity and emotional anguish to earn a bronze medal in Women’s figure skating.

Who will ever forget her determination, poise and self assurance to continue competing just days after tragically losing her mother on the eve of the event?

Can anyone truthfully say that they watched her performances without silently offering her all the love and support for which this country is renowned? Was anyone not crying with her at the end of her routines? If so, I strongly recommend you check your pulse, because Joannie gave these Games a quintessential demonstration of the fortitude, grace and beauty that this country can summon no matter how dark the hour; she not only Owned The Podium, she owned our hearts as well.

Could you ask anyone to do more than that?

Own The Podium has served notice that when it comes to sport, this country has shed its reserved and compliant nature to emerge as a proud and deserving member of the elite tier; the true North, strong and Golden.

Related posts:

1. Canadians Can Now Stop the Hand-wringing and Can Now Celebrate Our Sporting Victories, But How Large Was Our 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Victory Really? Canadians can now stop the hand-wringing, and finally we can...
2. The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games Endure Despite Tragedy and Criticism After years of painstaking planning, construction, advertising and anticipation, the...
3. Vancouver First Nations Resisting 2010 Winter Olympic Games While many aboriginals in Canada are joining in the celebrations...
4. How to Love, Hate, Protest, and Otherwise Not Care About the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games I am a pragmatist. I am not a Gordon Campbell-hater....
5. Exclusion of Women’s Ski Jumping from the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics is a Supreme Court of Canada Cop-Out On December 22nd, the Supreme Court of Canada refused to...

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 6th, 2010 at 3:22 pm and is filed under Canada and the World, Olympics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.