Two golds in two days; shut it, CTV

By: Jessica Ilse

js541806@dal.ca

It has to be said – I’m probably the least athletic person you’ll ever meet. I sprained my ankles more than I care to count while training to figure skate, and I curled for two years without knowing the rules.

That’s not to say that I don’t like sports, which is probably why I’ve been glued to my television since the Olympics started last Friday in Vancouver.

I had my reservations about the opening ceremony; I’m not going to lie. I’ve been half-convinced that the ceremony would feature dancers dressed as moose and beavers, or maybe a can-can line of Tim’s cups.

The tribute to the various locales of Canada was a nice touch. And even though I grumbled about the world’s introduction to Atlantic Canada – we’re hardly punk kilt-wearing fiddlers with fire-breathing tap shoes – I secretly think it was a nice tribute.

The slam poet, Shane Koyczan, sounded like a glorified “I am Canadian” beer commercial, but you could almost hear the chests swelling with pride in BC Place Stadium as he spoke of national pride and use of the letter “zed.”

Entertainment Weekly, a U.S. magazine, released a list of the best and worst moments of the opening ceremony.

The best moments were the computed-generated floor performance, including the whales and the ice floes, Team Italy’s outfits, Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” during the tribute to the Prairies and k.d. Lang’s performance of “Hallelujah” shortly after Governor General Michaëlle Jean opened the Games.

To go along with the Atlantic Canada tribute, the best discovery is a “Split decision: Newfoundland’s punk tap dancing fiddlers or this rum they call Screech.” Yes! Vancouver hosts the Games, but we’re the best discovery.

The worst moments, according to the magazine, aren’t anything that I would classify as terrible – the Mounties, horseback-less,  raising the Canadian flag (“…they couldn’t risk a horse going potty on the floor, which was such an integral part of the show.”).

Entertainment Weekly didn’t take kindly to Team Azerbaijan’s outfits, which somebody probably worked really hard to design. They didn’t much like the slam poetry at first, either (“The collective groan heard throughout living rooms in America when we found out we were about to hear spoken word.”).

And, of course, the fourth leg of the cauldron failed to rise (the “worst entry”), leaving speed skater Catriona Le May Doan to watch Wayne Gretzky, Steve Nash, and Nancy Greene light the cauldron.

But even though the international media focused on the best and worst moments of the opening ceremony, it’s not the only part of the Games garnering attention.

Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvli died hours before the opening ceremony in a lightning-fast accident on the luge track. The Vancouver weather, one of the warmest locations for a Winter Olympics, caused many ski events to be rescheduled. The lack of a gold medal win on Canadian soil, after two previously hosted Games, also drew criticism (the Montreal Summer Olympics in 1976, and the Calgary Winter Olympics in 1988).

And now, a new controversy is brewing: the lack of francophone culture at the opening ceremony. Henry Aubin, a columnist for the Montreal Gazette writes, “although the organizers bent over backward to give an appropriate place to Canada’s native people, their blind spot in regard to French Canada was staggeringly disrespectful.”

Maybe sections could’ve been shortened, but with a limited amount of time to show the world what makes Canada unique, it only makes sense that some things aren’t included. Quebec singer Garou performed just before the Olympic cauldron was lit, does that count?

But the most important Olympic news, at least to the CTV commentators –and to the annoyance of the rest of Canada – is the gold medal chase. Commentators took every opportunity last Friday and Saturday to lament the lack of gold. But it wasn’t until Sunday night that a Canadian finally won, with Alexandre Bilodeau, a Quebec native, taking home gold.

“It seems appropriate that a drought that started with the Montreal Olympics – and endured through Calgary in 1988 – should be busted by a son of the city where it began,” writes Christie Blatchford in Monday’s Globe and Mail.

And on Monday night, another gold medal came Canada’s way: Maëlle Ricker in snowboard cross.

So maybe the drought is ending for Canada. As The Commoner go to print, we have two gold medals, two silver medals, a bronze, and we’re ranked fourth overall. I have no doubt that we’ll continue to climb the medal ranking, so long as CTV commentators get over the gold medals and stop jinxing the athletes.