Olympic Madness

This year's Olympics' have been the most emotional, and the most poignant Olympics I have witnessed in years.

I am not really a sports fan. I watch my home team the Montreal Canadians play hockey. After all I do live in Montreal, and if you don't watch the Habs games then there is something inherently wrong with you. But that is where I draw the line.

Yet every four years I look forward to watching the winter Olympic games. I am not sure what it is about these games that bring on a certain feeling to me. I think it's the joy of the games in the dark of winter. The excitement of them, the thrills the spills the unbounded enthusiasm.

It's about the connectedness of us all for two weeks in the dead of winter. Knowing that you and every other person on the planet is watching as the best of the best gather to go faster, be stronger and go farther than ever before. It's that connectedness I think that makes me feel happy and proud especially this year when my country hosts the games.

What an emotional ride it's been, from Alexandre Bilodeau winning our first gold medal, our first medal on Canadian soil. How sweet it is. The absolute joy on his face when he realized he had won. His family looking on his brother cheering him on! It was just one of those epic moments in Olympic history. There were many moments like this throughout the two weeks of these games. The skate of a lifetime by Joannie Rochette with her dad looking on. Joannie skated her personnel best for her mom who passed away upon arriving in Vancouver to join her daughter. The absolute perfection of the ice dancing couple Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue left people with a sense of awe and wonder at such an incredible solid performance by two very young and talented skaters. These moments captured on film and in our hearts to live on forever. The women's ice hockey team winning gold! The women's bobsled teams coming in one and two, Kalillie Humpries and Heather Moyse and Helen Upperton and Shelly-Ann Brown. Just tremendous team work and skill. Our winter games were filled with such moments like this. The men's ice hockey golden game! A game that will go down in history with a young kid the Sid scoring the winning gold for Canada! It just doesn't get any better than that.

It was hilarous to hear people at work these past two weeks talking about the Olympics. How they are so tired at work because they have been up all night watching their favorite sport or athelete. How they can't get up off the couch to do anything, that they are so riveted to their televison sets afraid they might miss something. The children I work with at an elementary school know all the winners of the gold medals for Canada. They are completly in tune to what is happening on the other side of this great big beautiful country of ours. It's like we are all wearing our flags on our sleeves. How proud to be Canadian. How proud to show off our athletes to the world, how proud to show off this great country that is made and born from all of the countries represented at the Olympics.

I am not much of a summer Olympic person, I don't know why? Maybe because it's summer and well, there are nicer things to be doing than sitting in your house watching TV. Summer Olympic's just don't seem to have the same feeling for me as the winter ones. Perhaps it's because of this country where I was born and raised. A country that revels in it's winter's with the Carnival's and festivals. A people that get outside to make the best of the cold and snow and frigid weather, by playing. And by playing hard. Weather it's skating or skiing, we know how to get the best out of our winter's!

Now that it's over, that the flame has been extinguished. Now that the flag has been passed onto Sochi I really don't know what I will do? All this spare time and nothing to watch on TV. But what a great run we had. Yesterday's hockey game was the icing on the cake. What a game, a nail biter that will be recorded in our history books and imprinted on every mind across this country.

It has been said that these games have defined Canada, that they have drawn our people together. That we finally have come out of our shell and raised a little hell these past two weeks. Showing our true color; the color red! The color of passion and if that is what defines us well I am all for that. Canadians are passionate about their country, their athletes and their games. What really made these games was the passion of us all cheering and coming together to celebrate who we are! I can't think of any better way to spend two weeks in Febuary in Canada!