A powerful message appeared in the skies above Beijing during the Closing Ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games: one world, one family. In turbulent times, can our world’s family of nations put aside its differences in the interests of the common good?
Canada settled for a dissatisfying gold medal count of only four, thereby finishing the games in 11th spot. It was business as usual in the total medal count, however: 26 medals, placing us in 4th. Norway, with a population of only 5.4 million, won the games by a landslide hauling in a record 16 gold medals and a total of 37.
Ottawa-born, Calgary-based Isabelle Weidemann was selected as the flag-bearer at the concluding ceremony. She pulled a Maggie Mac Neil winning three medals, one of each colour, including gold in the speed skating women’s team pursuit. Steven Dubois took home one of each colour as well.
The best female hockey players in the world competed in the Olympics, including The Great Wall of Canada: goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens. The best men did not compete. NHL players decided to forgo the Games to honour Gary Bettman. And naturally, neither Canada nor the US won a medal. Because men’s hockey was scheduled as the final event of the games, it felt anticlimactic. Finland won its first Olympic gold medal defeating Russia, the latter under the bizarre alias of ROC. Perhaps the women’s gold medal hockey game should have served as the final event. Canada defeated the United States 3-2.
Our first gold medal of Beijing 2022 was reeled in by Max Parrot who had won silver four years earlier. His career was side-tracked when he was diagnosed with cancer. Max dealt with the cancer and then nailed gold in the men’s snowboard slopestyle.
Gold was also won in the men’s short-track speed skating 5000m relay. The skaters included Charles Hamelin. By winning this, his 6th medal, Charles ties long-track speedskater Cindy Klassen as our most decorated Winter Olympic athletes.
A big story at the 2022 Games was Eileen Gu. Though born and raised in the United States, she chose to compete for her mother’s homeland of China to help inspire young girls there to get into winter Olympic sports. An amazing athlete, her performances were spectacular. She won two gold medals and a silver, all in freestyle skiing. In the halfpipe, she was challenged by two Canadians. Cassie Sharpe was just coming off an injury, and joining her in the proficiency department was Rachael Karker. The three women put on dazzling displays. Eileen took gold, Cassie silver, and Rachael bronze.
New Zealand won its first ever Winter Olympic Gold Medal thanks to the heroine who is Zoi Sadowski-Synnott. Of course, the most important thing about that was beating Australia.
Every Olympics has its scandals. We won’t focus too much on those except to cite an interesting one. Music group Heavy Young Heathens filed a lawsuit against US television network NBC, the U.S. Figure Skating organization, and figure skaters Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier, stating their copyright for song “House of the Rising Sun” was violated when the pair used it in their short program without the band’s permission.
Canada’s all-time Winter Olympic medal count is 226 (78 G, 72 S, 76 B). In Beijing we won our first medal ever in ski jumping (mixed team). The only winter Olympic event in which we have yet to win a medal now is Nordic combined.
The next Summer Olympics will be held in Paris in 2024 and the next Winter Games in Italy’s Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo in 2026.
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