“Women’s Wednesday” and Canadians Show Their Colours

Big day today for Canada! Four medals by our awesome women — and, oh yeah, we got by the Russians in hockey!

I want to send out a big thanks and shout-out to two sponsors of the gold-winning womens bobsleigh team (Humphries & Moyse), my friends Rick Powers and Jim Stone (Powie and Stoner). Little do most of us know that it is only with personal financial support and sponsorship that these athletes are able to get here. 

You have no idea how huge this one-two win is on the World stage — Germany has a huge “Bob” (not “bobsleigh”) program and their athletes are fully supported. Their luge, skeleton and bob teams are well-known and treated like rock stars in their home country. They are impressed with us.

The town of Whistler was whooping it up again tonight.  I take many opportunities, no matter how tired I am, to try and meet and chat with strangers. Most of us are strangers here, from elsewhere — and almost always have interesting tales to tell.  I find it interesting and inspiring to hear how others from across the globe look at Canada and the Games we are hosting.  Here are some observations.

1.   Patriotism — yes, as perplexing it is to the media, Canada is showing a level of patriotism that is unmatched in our history. And every visitor absolutely LOVES IT!  In a short two weeks, we have shed our docile humble image and donned an astonishingly brash, hip, red and white and black  mantle of patriotic pride. 
2. Maple Leaf – Anything with a maple leaf or Canadian flag attached to it is snapped up. The famous red mitts show up in the Whistler Olympic store in small quantities each morning, but line-ups start at 7 am, 2 hours prior to opening — by 9:15, sold out! My Vancouver contacts say the same thing about The Bay and Olympic store in the city.
3. Like Disney! I have heard, on several occasions, people compare the attitude of  staff, volunteers, workers to Disney — “feels like we are at Disney!” Tonight, I met another couple who are regular Olympic visitors from the UK. They remarked that workers & volunteers display a genuine warmth and friendliness that they have not seen before at both Turin or Salt Lake. I have to agree — I see it too.
4. Too Good to be True?? Yes, I am reporting the bright side — of course there are  things that could be done better, stuff behind the scenes that is just plain stupid or wasteful or both. I will chat about some of that later.