We Need These Games

Last week I had a regular breakfast meeting with two friends and our normal discussions are all about politics.  On this morning we were talking about the Olympics and what we’ve seen in the first week.  One of my breakfast mates said it best when she said, “Canada needs these games”.  Yes, we do, it’s a distraction Canadians need in the summer of 2024.

We needed these games to always be hopeful for Olympic success.  In the first week of the Olympics, I think back about the successes the Canadian Team have had and contrast that with the headline CTV News posted before theses games began stating that our team would win fewer medals in the games than the Tokyo games in 2021. I certainly hope others that saw that headline did the same I did and commented that it was out of place and disrespectful of our athletes.  At the time of writing, Canada had achieved 17 medals (5G 4S 8B), seven shy 2021’s results of 24 medals (7G 7S 10B). I cheered each medal 3 years ago, but I cheer louder for the 17 medals we have won in first 8 days of the XXXIII Olympiad.

We needed these games to see the fight in our Olympians. These games have seen some ‘expected’ wins not come through, but we’ve seen surprises that earn our Canadian athletes medals (think of fencing, tennis and rugby sevens).  It’s these surprises that create the excitement that we as Canadians get to have through the athletes. I felt a greater intensity of pride following the tribulations our athletes had to fight through.   Mo Ahmed’s 4th place finish in the 10,000m race, the fourth-place finish in Summer McIntosh’s final race of her Olympics in the 4 x 100M IM, personal bests, Canadian Records and the fight that Canadian Women’s National Team endured after been given what some called insurmountable odds all demonstrated the spirit of the Olympics, always fighting and giving your best.

We needed this games to have our Canadian athletes show us how tough they were.  The Women’s soccer team were given mountains to climb to get to the round of 8 quarterfinals.  Whatever bruises individuals of the coaching team caused it was the action of the collective team on the pitch that raised the honour we felt for women.  After receiving a six-point deduction, it was the women who said, if we must go 3-0 to move on, we will and we’ll show that we are the team to beat in these games, and they did.  

We needed these games to have pride in Canada once again.  The games put our politics to the back burner.  We were talking about the grit, the energy, amazing performances the story of every athlete on their journey to get to the games.  It’s this that should propel us to demand better as a nation and of our leaders.  We learned this after only one week.

We need these games.