Raising The Flag Debate

Admittedly, it was first floated in this space a few days ago on the wings of sheer admiration ... but hardly without a sense of logic.
Now it seems there is a growing movement to have the indomitable Joannie Rochette carry the Canadian flag in Sunday's closing ceremony at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. I've seen it mentioned on Facebook, on Internet message boards and — perhaps most tellingly — even in the words of at least one former Games gold medallist.
"That was the most inspiring thing I have ever seen!" ex-Canadian women's hockey goaltender Sami Jo Small posted on Twitter shortly after Rochette earned a courageous bronze medal in women's figure skating on Thursday night. "Joannie should carry the CND Flag at the closing ceremonies. Represents the best of us!"
That's pretty much a universal sentiment after the world watched Rochette's stunning performance in the wake of the death of her mother, Therese, early Sunday morning — about 48 hours before she had to skate the short program at Pacific Coliseum. The 24-year-old from Ile-Dupas, Que., never wavered for a second in deciding to compete and reach for the dream she shared with her mom.
By the time she skated for the medals on Wednesday night, Rochette's story had reached global proportions, with one report this morning calling it "the iconic moment" of Vancouver 2010. All the more reason, it says here, to hand Rochette the red maple leaf on Sunday night.
In all likelihood, it won't happen. Freestyle skier Alex Bilodeau, who gave Canada it's first-ever Olympic medal on home soil in the men's moguls, is the logical choice in many eyes. In fact, the Canadian closing ceremony flagbearers at the past four Winter Games (Cindy Klassen, 2006; Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, 2002; Catriona Le May Doan, 1998, and Myriam Bedard, 1994) have all brought home gold.
But what a statement it would make if the panel selecting the flagbearer decided this time to pick someone who represents the true Olympic spirit. An athlete who didn't just earn a medal but showed remarkable character and courage in the face of the worst of adversity, yet refused to surrender in the face of it all. A person who authored an astounding Olympic story that will be remembered for decades after the flame is extinguished in Vancouver, in Canada and beyond.
You will find all of that, and so much more, of a little fighter from Quebec who taught us all so much with a magnificent display of heart.
Joannie Rochette did Canada so very proud this week and the world stood at her feet in awe and admiration. Amid all the Own The Podium bluster, maybe she stands for the Canada we should want them all to remember after they depart our remarkable Winter Games.

Olympic Hero ... Or Zero

It is an indisputable fact that a whole lot of people pay more attention to certain sports — well, pretty much all of them — at the Olympics than they do at any other time.

Okay, let's be brutally honest. Without the world 'Olympics' in front of it, the vast majority of North American sports fans don't give a crap about things like luge and bobsled and skiing and speed skating. A cynic might suggest it's as simple as this: if you can't bet on it, who cares?

Point being, there are a lot of folks caring about such winter sports right now that ordinarily don't. And more than just a few of them happen to be media types who, for two weeks, have to be 'experts' on things they know little about. And there's a not-so-significant audience that counts on them to feel informed about it.
(those that actually realize the Winter Olympics are about more than just hockey, but that's a story for another day).

All of which means that reputations are often forged in a large way by what goes on underneath the five rings and not so much by when the spotlight is turned off. And depending on how you handle the crucible of the Olympics, some become instant celebrities. Others, eternal goats.

Yes, it's hardly fair, but it is what it is. Which brings me to the subject of Jeremy Wotherpoon, the Canadian speed skater who finished ninth in the men's 500 metres tonight at the Vancouver 2010 Games. That means, at age 33, the Red Deer, Alta., will walk away from the five-ring circus with an oh-fer on his resume after four cracks at the Olympics. One silver in 1998 in Nagano and zero golds.

All of that has led to Wotherpoon being branded as a massive underachiever in far too many eyes. But that doesn't begin to tell the tale of an athlete widely regarded as one of the greatest sprint speed skaters of all-time. Nobody has won more World Cup races in the sport's history than Wotherspoon, a 12-time World Cup overall champion. He's also an eight-time world champion who broke a raft of world records.

But cruelly, he'll be seen as much less by a public that only sees such athletes every four years. And, it says here, that's just plain wrong.

Ask anyone in figure skating and they'll tell you Kurt Browning, a four-time world champion, is one of his sport's all-time greats. Does the fact he came up empty at two Winter Olympics change that?

It's a thought that former U.S. sprint speed skating star Dan Jansen — who found himself in the same boat as Wotherspoon until he broke through for 1,000-metre gold in Lillehammer in 1994 — related during a CTV interview earlier today.

Jansen, who's working for NBC at these Games, said pretty much everybody in speed skating regards Wotherspoon as one of the all-time greats, perhaps the best ever in the sprints. And a huge number of them were not-so-quietly hoping that Wotherspoon would get that elusive gold in his final 500 at the Olympics. Alas, it wasn't to be.

Not that it mattered to those in the know. In their minds, Wotherspoon's place in history is more than secure. Much as they wanted to see it, they knew an Olympic gold wasn't needed to justify it.

Too bad everyone who's watched him four times at the Olympics — and not anywhere else — can't say or see the same. History just might judge Wotherspoon a whole lot differently if they had.
Sadly, that simply isn't the case.