You can't talk about Canadian success without acknowledging the U.S. of A.
So let's do that, if you care to be a little tongue-in-cheek. While this is one Canada's best sports years ever, at the same time is it one of America's worst?
Cindy Klassen, whose five medals were the highlight of this country's most successful Winter Olympics, was named the winner of the Lou Marsh Award just minutes ago as Canada's outstanding athlete. She symbolizes this year in Canadian sport, before Steve Nash and three other reigning MVPs -- soccer's Christine Sinclair as U.S. women's college athlete of the year, Justin Morneau in major-league baseball and Joe Thornton in the NHL.
Remember who was hyped to have a chance at winning five medals at Turin, and fell on his face -- fell on his face spectacularly? That was skiier Bode Miller, who turned in a craptacular Olympic performance.
Miller already had a biography and an eponymous video game by the time he got to Turin, but he went 0-for-5 on the ski hills in Italy and -- what was worse? -- had Bob Costas tear a strip off him on NBC for letting America down. Miller's public persona -- if not the young man himself -- became a symbol of America's Losing Year: Brash, self-indulgent and continually failing to live up to expectations.
The American hype machine had built up Miller into something he wasn't, just like it did with George W. Bush and his cronies back in early 2003. His Olympic showing wasn't historically bad for an American downhiller.
There is just no room for that kind of nuance when the forces of no-memory aim to trim the facts to suit their purposes -- just like they did with the cowboy coward in the White House in '03-04. Turns out Miller isn't Jean-Claude Killy, and Bush ain't Winston Churchill, no matter what anyone says.
The U.S. won one more Olympic medal than Canada (and nine golds to our seven), but you're comparing a large, sports-obsessed country of 300 million to a country of 32 million which has trouble funding any sport which isn't hockey. It just seemed that nearly anywhere you looked in '06, Canadians were enjoying more than our usual modest, thanks-for-comin'-out success and American athletes and teams were making like Bode Miller on his way out of a bar -- barely able to stand.
It went that way domestically and abroad for the U.S. The Super Bowl, America's biggest sporting event, was a lousy game that was forgotten immediately outside of the greater Pittsburgh and Seattle regions. The World Series was a mistake-fest that was won by a team which had fewer regular-season victories than the Toronto Blue Jays, not that St. Louis Cardinals fans should feel need to apologize for their unlikely victory.
Various Team USAs ate it big-time all year. Sweden, which has barely 3,000 female hockey players, beat the U.S. in the Olympic women's hockey semifinal.
World Baseball Classic? Canada, with a lineup of pros who earn less combined than Alex Rodriguez, who couldn't even decide what team he wanted to play for, beat Team USA, which was triumph enough. The powerhouse U.S. team couldn't even get to the semifinals.
A couple months after a very good NBA Finals, a team of U.S. bajillionaire basketball players failed to even reach the final at the world championship in Japan, losing to Greece -- which didn't have a single NBA player -- in the semis. Around that same time, it was coming to light that the cyclist who was supposed to retain North America's (imaginary) interest in cycling post-Lance Armstrong, Floyd Landis, may have been a drug cheat.
It's just as well the U.S. wasn't looking for redemption at the women's world basketball championship, since the Americans settled for a bronze medal there as well.
Soccer? The U.S. lost to tiny Ghana at the World Cup, and tying eventual winners Italy was pretty thin gruel after the No. 5-ranked Americans went winless and failed to advance out of group play. In tennis, American players failed to win a Grand Slam singles title. Only Andy Roddick, at the U.S. Open tellingly enough, was even able to make a final -- where he got blasted by Roger Federer.
Oh, but the Carolina Hurricanes did win the Stanley Cup, with an American coach in Peter Laviolette no less, which is great for U.S. hockey. Of course, it came at a time when the average American is fast losing interest in hockey, since ESPN has lost interest in hockey.
Most Americans wish now that their country had voted differently two years ago, granted. While you can't prove it, of course, it sure feels likes there's some karmic connection between the Bush era, America's low standing in the world and their teams and athletes getting their comeuppance. It's not all bad -- Americans always bounce back. Meantime, a down-on-its-luck America usually means better movies and music for Canadians and the rest of the world to devour.
Canada's sporting year wasn't perfect. The Grey Cup was a stinker. In terms of getting out of sports what one puts into it, we beat our southern neighbours but good.
Still, Americans, like people worldwide, turn to sports for an escape from the everyday world. It's a loose connection, but at a time when Bush has messed everything up so badly, they can't even count on that anymore -- regardless of whether or not they voted for him.
There's a lesson in there, not just for Americans but Canadians too. Many people in our country seem eager to move away from Bush's America, but a lot of the powers-that-be think we should emulate their example.
After all, where did our biggest sports disaster come this year? It was in men's hockey -- the one sport where we act all full of ourselves, behave obnoxiously, and are out to win at all costs... or as some Canadian almost always will inevitably (if wrongly) put it, like a bunch of Americans.
(This post was linked in Deadspin's "Blogdome" on Dec. 12, 2006. Click here to return to the main site.)
That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.
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18 comments:
Hello,
I read your blog often and enjoy your insight on the NHL. However, this post makes you appear somewhat jealous, rather silly, and entirely ignorant of the American view of Canada. I'm not sure why some Canadians feel that they are in some sort of a constant competition with the US; that feeling is not reciprocated. Unfortunately, for every million americans, there is one Bill O'Reilly who will spout off and do his best to make our entire nation appear as if we have some sort of fictitious bone to pick with Canadians on Fox News.
We have more than enough reasons to not like George Bush, however, sports is not one of them. In fact, it is something that I have never even considered, and it seems like more of a vehicle for your resentment of America's politics than athletics. There are many countries that do not like us, we know and accept that, but that does not make us happy with it. However, we just go on living our lives, and along with that, enoying our sports. After the Olympics, how many blog articles were written with headlines such as "In Your Face Canada!"? Although I dont have any official count, I'm guessing it was most likely zero. I'd like to believe that both nations could seperate sports from politics, however judging by first the Canadian booing of a bunch of kids and our anthem in Vancouver in January, then the booing of your anthem in San Jose several months later, its obvious that both of our nations have a problem with that.
Have a good day sir.
We're still friends, right?
Of course. Isn't everyone friends on the internet?
Just for the record, no country's anthem should be booed. Even cheering as the singer reaches the last line is kind of uncool.
Hi Brian,
As a Canadian, I also read this blog regularly, and I can tell you that as much as the average Canadian loathes the idea of anti-Americanism for no reason other than to show my country's collective inferiority complex, it's incredibly shallow and intellectually dishonest for anyone, especially Americans, to do the "babe in the woods," innocence routine when it comes to mixing politics and sport. Your nation almost wrote the book when it comes to self-congratulatory excess in sport.
By the way, most Canadians are quite aware that a lot of Americans don't know or care what Canadians think in terms of politics or sports. We witness this quite often. And I assure you, very few Canadians are even remotely jealous of America these days in many respects.
If you think Canada is in a "competition" with America when it comes to Canadians comparing themselves to Americans in many avenues of life, sports or otherwise, you're probably half-right: after all, when you live next to the world's only (for the next few years at least) superpower, you learn to take your cues from them quite readily. Consider some of our values merely lessons learned from America, good or bad. We've learned that when it comes to winning, nobody does it better or worse than America.
Neate's post is honest: it was a bad year for American sports, that is an unequivocal fact. And as a writer, he's entitled to take creative license when it comes to karma's hideous bitch goddess qualifications. Maybe it's tough to digest that he's throwing the President into the mix, but hey, it's his right.
Finally, let's make one thing very clear: while it was indeed shameful to see Canadian fans booing the American national anthem at the World Juniors last year, this is a case of pot kettle black, Brian. I can name off the top of my head several incidents just at the Turin Winter Olympics alone where instead of celebrating individual athletic accomplishment for what it was at a sports event, it was overshadowed by self-righteous, self-indulgent hubris. Let's see... the arrogance of wannabe Chad Hendrick? The loony tunes of Bode Miller? The pouty, indignant, elitist attitude of Sasha Cohen during the ladies skating competition? I can keep going here, you know.
It's not fair to label every American as obnoxious or selfish or annoying, nor is it fair to stereotype and call French snobby and elitist, or British uptight and boring, or Canadians lame-os and goody-two-shoes, but don't piss in our ears and tell us it's raining. Americans are as guilty of athletic excess as anyone else. The only difference is you're on top of the world, and nobody likes the one on top.
Thanks for the support, but do go easy on Brian. He stated his objections respectfully.
Hello Anonymous (I wish you had given a name to respond to, perhaps next time),
Your points are well taken. I just wanted to comment on your response, hopefully I can explain myself adequately. A large focus for your response was the George Bush comment, so I'll address that first. My mention of the comment was purely out of confusion, nothing else. I certainly can see the correlation between the american performance in international competition and politics in terms of time frame, however, outside of the fans of the Texas Rangers, I'm not sure that anyone can blame W directly for a lack of success in in the athletic world. Where I live (outside of New York City), Mr Bush is not a particularly popular fellow, which leads me to this thought : Even though every person around me has a perceptible dislike for this man, I have never thought (or heard in any conversation) that the president had any part in any success (or lack thereof) in any athletic contest. So for your comment "Maybe it's tough to digest that he's throwing the President into the mix"... no, its not tough in the least, mostly just confusing. Criticize him all you want, personally, I just do not understand the context.
The second thing I wanted to comment on was how you mentioned the "self-congratulatory excess" of Americans. I can honestly understand where this comes from, with the Keyshawn Johnsons and Terrell Owenses, Ron Artests, etc so seemingly prevalent these days. Do you really, in your perception of Americans, fail to see the difference between athletes and fans? Almost noone in this entire nation took Bode Miller seriously. Almost noone can stand Terrel Owens or Barry Bonds. Personally, I do not like Todd Bertuzzi or Darcy Tucker, similarly to how I felt about Dale Hunter. Do I feel that every Canadian loves every Canadian athlete? No, just as it would be silly for anyone to say that all Americans enjoy the antics of individuals such as Sasha Cohen.
Like I said before, I understand if you do not like American politics, sports figures or anything else. It's clear that Canadians have much to be proud of this year in athletics. I wanted to convey that when it comes to sports, I do not comprehend the "We had a great year, so take that [country x]!!" mentality.
Lastly, "as a writer, he's entitled to take creative license" Absolutely! I apologize if I made it unclear that I believed that. However, whenever anyone does anything in a public forum, they open themselves and their work to comments, both positive and negative. I only wanted to give my (American) perspective on Neate's post.
Neate, That you for writing, I think you do a great job. Have a good day.
Neate - I enjoy your writing but do you think any Americans are thinking about or worried about how we do in sports in comparison to Canada?
Speaking as an American - I expect Canada to do better than the US in the winter Olympics. The fact that we finished with roughly the same amount of medals is almost a moral victory for the US.
Brian,
It's all cool, apologies if I came across as a bit aggressive in my post.
Address a few other things: you're absolutely right on the separation of fans and athletes. There are a lot of good fans in American sports, for sure. It's bad to generalize.
Chris...just to defend Neate here, as I said earlier, believe me, Canadians are extremely aware the average American sports fan cares little to nothing about Canadian sports. Heck, most Americans care little to nothing about Canada period. We're not oblivious to that.
Also, speaking as a Canadian, did you not check the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics total? You pretty much owned the Olympics that year, on home turf no less. The whole planet was rooting for Americans for God's sake in the wake of 9-11. Moral victory? We're 32 million, you're 300 million. Heck, the world expects the U.S. dominate every major sporting event. Moral victories are moot when you have a sporting arsenal funded with billions of dollars.
And yes, you're right on why it's kind of odd to blame Dubya for the lack of American sporting successes this year. I guess it's one of those "easy target" issues.
wait...Jean Claude Killy is Canadian? That's news to me...
Good on ya for ignoring 21-year-old humble underdog Ted Ligety who won gold in the Combined and goofy Julie Mancuso, who was such an arrogant American that she had the Italians cheering for her.
Did Canada even bring home an Alpine medal?
You might want to keep in mind that the Austrians beat the snot out of everyone in Alpine sking and there's only 8 million of them. So, try an excuse other than population.
Alpine? That's a beer.
Canada did win medals in 10 disciplines -- the most of any country, followed by the U.S. in nine.
No alpine medals, but our athletes did medal in cross-country and moguls skiing -- and the downhillers had three 4ths and a 5th.
Canada beat the US this summer in the Worls Lacrosse Championships.
great article. found you through deadspin...
brian-- wow. not sure what you misunderstood, construed. Frankly, wish i would have never read the dialogue back and forth.
the article had an entertaining thesis, plenty of examples and a humorous bent.
my only contention is that it wasn't a lousy SB, it was a lowsy officiated SB. Perhaps if you could tie "Officials inadequacy" with "Official Political Inadequacy" you'd have me sold.
All Zebras suck.
I hate the Canadien Anthem in the Pepsi Center-- it's Denver-- WHY?!?! But don't boo it.
But I look at Canada's winter and the Australians' summer and say "Props" to the little guys. I respect you more than ever.
Now can we get a little of that liberal yet logical political bent? I'm tired of religious wack-jobs telling me and mine how to live my life.
no idea why i spelled "lowsy" wrong, perhaps because i'm that pissed at the officials...
The Grey Cup was a stinker.
So...the Stanley Cup is annually filled with teams that do nothing but clutch, grab, and trap, and that's fine...
but one Grey Cup that turns out to be a defense and field position battle, and it's a stinker.
Sorry your city couldn't, once again, support a team. Get over it.
I don't follow... I'm an Argonauts fans who's lived in Ottawa for 10 months b/c that's where my work took me.
One point to make about the Winter Olympics and directly comparing the populations of Canada and the USA...
People from Florida, Texas, North Carolina, ect. don't make for good nordic skiers, curlers, hockey players, ect.
So if you count only northern and mountainous states (which would include) California, that's what, 120-130 million people?
Still several times that of Canada.
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