Editor:
Re: Defeat without the agonizing, Feb. 28 letters.
I have nothing but pride and admiration for our 2018 Olympians and how our men and women pushed themselves both physically and mentally to the brink of exhaustion while we, as observers, sat in our sofas in the safety of our homes watching the events unfold before our eyes.
No longer are our athletes just happy to participate at the Olympics. They now compete to prove they are some of the best in the world.
Like letter-writer Maureen Kerr, decades ago I was an athlete, having competed in four Canadian University championships and winning gold twice as an individual athlete. I competed around the world as part of that national team.
Upon retiring, I coached athletes onto many Olympics. I have seen my share of joy and anguish from athletes.
I am sorry Kerr feels let down by our Canadian women’s hockey team – let down because they cried. Really? Does anyone think they made themselves cry, just as the U.S. team made themselves leap and scream in unbridled joy while having a team ‘dog-pile’ at centre ice?
So, if crying is involuntary and the joy is as well, then getting the gold and jumping for joy in front of the second-place team would, by that logic, be considered in poor taste?
Let us look back to the 2010 Olympics men’s hockey finals. The Canadians win the gold and the U.S. men earn the silver. Now, both teams are comprised of NHL players, who play more than 80 games a season and win and lose on a weekly basis. There is no crying.
Matter of fact, I have never seen a player cry upon losing in the Stanley Cup final. Yet, in 2010, I saw three U.S. players crying.
The Olympics is not a league series. It is not a national nor a high school championship. It’s once every four years. For most, it’s once in their athletic career.
I, for one, am not “let down” by our Canadian women’s hockey team. When an athlete gives it everything they have, and when it is over – whether they are screaming in joy and having tears running down their face – I have nothing but admiration and pride for the effort they put out in an attempt to prove they are the best.
Serge Score, Surrey