It’s easy to say the Winter Olympics is nothing more than a corporate marketing venture, a bread-and-circuses excercise for the masses.
Take the torch relay. It cost $900,000 plus $3.9 million for security. All that loot to perpetuate a ceremony refined by the Nazis for Germany’s 1933 Summer Olympics.
Nationalism always rears its ugly head. Many Canadians are uncomfortable with our Own The Podium attitude. Aren’t we succumbing to the temptations of small nations which attempt to gain the respect of the world by winning gold medals through hyper-intense training methods?
Then there’s the cost. Recent estimates put the total bill, including security and infrastructure, at $6 billion. Though the Games are supposed to be largely self-financing, there are charges that some projects will not make their economic targets.
And the absurd arrogance of the Vancouver Olymic Committee, which has actually trademarked the use of the line With Glowing Hearts from our national anthem, though it has pledged take action only against ambush marketers.
But criticisms are silenced as competition begins. As this is written, Canada has already won gold. Suddenly we’re all looking at the medal count.
But does it really matter how many medals Canada wins? The main contribution of the Olympics has already been made.
It’s in the memories of the 12,000 mostly ordinary Canadians who had a hand in that incredible relay right across the country. That relay looped all over the country up into the Northwest Territories and the High Arctic in the coldest months of the year. It seemed to include every small town in the country, from Tofino to Tatamagouche and Iqualuit to Ingersoll.
For years the people who carried the torch will remember their moment in the spotlight. They’ll tell it to their grandchildren, their neighbours and, as we have noted on another page in this edition, to the local Women’s Institute. That’s the Canadian contribution to the Olympics and that’s where we get to stand proud.
