Sochi Olympics over, memories remain

by Evan Mathias

With the Sochi Olympic Winter Games now over, we look back and remember some proud moments for Canadian athletes. It seems like the Olympics started ages ago; does anyone even remember the opening ceremony?

These Olympic Games were action packed. The Dufour-Lapointe sisters won the hearts of an entire nation with their incredible start to the Olympics. Nineteen-year-old Justine Dufour-Lapointe claimed gold over her older sister Chloe who earned the silver medal.Their eldest sister Maxine that finished in twelfth place. Was that just a mere two weeks ago?

The Games have felt like a family event for Canadians in attendance in Sochi. Bruce Arthur of the National Post said he felt like everyone had lived a lifetime in Sochi not just the two weeks in reality.

That’s what the Olympics is all about? To be a part of something more than just competition, to be a part of something great that is unexplainable to those who didn’t witness its greatness.

These Winter Games were different from the previous Games four years earlier in Vancouver. We didn’t have home ice advantage, we didn’t care. Canada claimed third place in the medal standings behind only Russia and Norway. At one point we were first, something Canada has never done at any Olympic Games. Canada finished with 10 gold, 10 silver and five bronze medals, good enough for fourth in the total medal count.

There were spectacular performances, like Alex Bilodeau’s successful gold medal defence in men’s moguls, the first person to ever do so. We witnessed gestures of what it means to be Canadian, when Gilmore Junio gave up his chance to compete to Denny Morrison because he thought Morrison was skating better. What is more Canadian than that? Morrison went on to win a silver medal, all while Junio and his family cheered as though Morrison was family.

Canadian’s witnessed one of the most spectacular comebacks in Canadian hockey history when the women’s team led by Marie-Philip Poulin came back against their biggest rivals, the Americans. Down 2-0 with less than five minutes to go in their gold medal game, the women forced overtime when the golden girl herself, Poulin, sealed the deal for Canada. The women’s team has now won four straight Olympic gold medals.

The Canadian men’s hockey team scored a similar victory against their toughest competition in the tournament. Facing the Americans in the semi-final game, Jamie Benn scored the lone goal and game winner along with a 31 stop performance from goaltender Carey Price. The defensively strong Canadian squad continued to stymie their competition in the gold medal game against Sweden. Canada’s overtime hero from the 2010 gold medal game, Sidney Crosby, along with Jonathan Toews and Chris Kunitz scored to put Canada up 3-0 accompanied by Price’s second shutout of the Olympic tournament.

These Olympics, not unlike the Vancouver Games, brought us together as a nation. Committed and united with one goal, to bring home gold. The Olympics foster national pride and there was certainly a surfeit of Canadian pride at Sochi 2014.