Former Olympian says curling and hockey are part of Canadian values

CHEK

WATCH: With two days of Olympic competition left to go Canada is guaranteed its highest medal count in history. But while that tells us these are our most successful games there were some surprising misses. Luisa Alvarez went to find out why there is a cultural expectation to do well in certain sports.

No doubt Canada is proud, with 27 medals this Olympic games has been our countries most successful as a whole. Just to name a few
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir won gold in ice dance captivating the world with their performance. Vancouver island very own Cassie Sharpe took home gold in the half pipe and Katelyn Osmond became the 6th Canadian woman to earn an individual figure skating medal at the Olympic games.

But there were some unexpected losses in areas we’re used to dominating. The women’s hockey team lost their gold medal to the US ending Canada’s 16 year run as Olympic champions.

” Sometimes they’re able to put it together and they win and sometimes they don’t,” said Tom Southwood.

” Its our sport, or we consider it our sport so we expect to get gold every single time,” said Gordon Rosander.

And for the men losing to Germany took away their chance at gold.

” Its a big frustration I think for everybody in Canada the expectation for hockey in Canada is always so high,” said Peter Swan.

Curling was also a shock Switzerland beat Canada in the bronze medal match. But, with so many successes why do those upsets hurt so much? Former Olympian and A professor at Royal Roads University Dr. Jennifer Walinga has her thoughts.

“I think Canada has the expectation that we will win in certain sports like curling and hockey the most recent ones where we struggled and I think a lot of that comes from what we value in our country,” said Walinga.

Clearly held dear to our hearts and while those losses will continue to sting for a while, nothing can over shadow our  countries triumphant over all success.

” The Olympics is a global event and most of the beauty in the Olympics is in that. We are all in this big giant global community,” said Walinga.

 

Luisa AlvarezLuisa Alvarez

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