Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Roundup

Just like the opening ceremonies peaked with K.D. Lang singing Cohen's Hallelujah, the closing ceremonies did the same with Neil Young's Long May You Run.

Not a bad Olympic experience for me, though I didn't go to any events. The television was on pretty much round the clock and I got to watch most everything--my favorites being those I only hear about every four years: biathlon, skeleton, ski cross. Too good.

I'd be a liar if I didn't concede getting a little misty-eyed over some of the Canadian athlete performances. Medalists of course, but also the cross-country guys who placed 5th in the 50km event. That was so hard-core I was out of breath just watching it. Plus, the Slovakian woman who scored a bronze with three broken ribs and a punctured lung? Good Lord.

Still, I don't know what to make of the "red mittens, red shirts--Go Canada, Ra ra ra--we're so awesome because we wear red shirts and awesome is awesome so we are that" stuff. There's something rather phony about that sort of nationalism. Or maybe all nationalism in the Canadian context is phony--I don't know. It felt great to cheer for our athletes, and to do so with a host of like-minded people. But for the life of me I don't see how that qualifies a country's greatness or importance, especially when it does nothing to make one distinct.

I don't buy the "corporate takeover" complaints--our athletes rely on that sort of support (which doesn't really come from anywhere else) and have to acquiesce to the obvious irony of selling products they likely never use. But I see an equally ironic, manufactured quality in the notion of Canada coming together during the Olympics. Once they are done (and they are done now), we all go back to our usual distinctions, our geographical and cultural divides, our pockets of habit.

I think what we see during the Olympics is an opportunity for people to cheer en masse for what we wished our country would embody: the purity of individual effort, discipline, and achievement that stands above the regular world. All of this manifested in athletic prowess, a fitting metaphor in some ways, but perhaps also too easily reduced.

The media went a sad route, taking on all the qualities I've disliked about American network coverage--the over-emphasis of our own athletes above and beyond the successes of others. To be expected, of course, but with the "We are Canadian" theme of the ceremonies, it came across as an apologetic--not a welcoming of nations. I think the world gets it. Vancouver is in Canada, and Canada is a country. 'Nuff said.

Regardless, it was a treat to witness the highlights of physical excellence--from everywhere. I won't be forgetting Crosby's overtime goal any time soon. Same with Norway's Petter Northug's crazy skiing, or Germany's Maria Riesch. And what about our Canadian speed skaters? Awesome. It was a pleasure to be able to make the illusory claim of such individual effort as being, on occasion, "our own".