My Olympic Hangover
Well, it’s official. I’m in Olympics withdrawal. After more than two weeks of incredible highs, heartbreaking lows and an unbridled patriotism that consumed this country and swept me along with it, I find that I am left with a deep sense of pride in our athletes, Vancouverites and our country in general.
I was lucky enough to get tickets to aerials, the closing ceremonies (which took campy, kitschy, silly fun to another level) and, the mother of all 2010 events, Men’s Gold Medal Hockey. For a time we thought seriously about selling our hockey tickets once we knew Canada was going to be there but, in the end, I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything. Okay maybe not
anything. Hey, we all have our price, don’t we? But you get the point.
It was incredible to be there in that sea of red with my fingers crossed and my heart pounding as the pressure mounted. When the score was tied mere seconds before the end of the 3rd period I was completely paralyzed, mouth agape. Paralysis quickly morphed into feeling sick to my stomach. I was just so nervous for our players who had to bear the weight of an entire country's expectations on their shoulders.
When the winning goal was scored in overtime I literally thought I was going to explode with the excitement and relief of it all. I hugged every stranger in red I could get my hands on. As we all shuffled out of the stadium singing the anthem, cheering like mad and high-fiving on-duty police officers I felt what I think people all across the country felt; a kinship, a closeness, a sense that the elusive significance of what it means to be “Canadian” had somehow been found during these games.
It turns out it wasn’t just that we did, in a sense, “Own the Podium” and it wasn’t because we won the gold medal in hockey, though that was the proverbial icing on the cake; it was that we had all been waiting, it seems, for an excuse to wear our patriotism as a badge of honor rather than an emotion to hide (at least around people from other countries). And wear it we did, as pins, as badges, as t-shirts, as jerseys, as temporary tattoos and as body paint.
Now, as the streets are swept, the tents are taken down and the body paint shellacked to chests is scraped off, the high of the past 16 days is waning and the melancholy of knowing that an extraordinary time has now passed is setting in. However, the melancholy can’t last forever but what will last is the memory of a record number of gold medals, a hockey game that will go down in history and our collective experience of one hell of a party.
~Laura
Labels: 2010, Canada, Canadians, Laura, Olympics, Patriotism, Pride, Vancouver
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