While there is a reasonable argument to be had that the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games should never have happened in China or that Canada should not have participated in them due to the host country’s human rights abuses, that ski jumper has left the take-off table, so to speak.
Now that the games have begun, limited as they are by pandemic restrictions, they are more than a welcome distraction from tensions over COVID-19 vaccines, mandates, convoys and the myriad of other divisions here in town.
It was blissfully hard to be angry or upset, for example, while watching Max Parrot win Canada’s first gold medal in the men’s snowboard slopestyle on Sunday.
Not to mention Whistler’s Mark McMorris winning bronze in the same event — his third Olympic medal!
And who didn’t cheer as Canada’s Sarah Nurse scored a hat trick against Finland?
Watching Isabelle Weidemann win a bronze medal for Canada in the women’s 3,000m in speed skating was absolutely thrilling.
And did you catch Canadian figure skater Madeline Schizas’s beautiful program — a personal best performance that earned her 69.60 points in the women’s short program portion of the team event?
The teen mastered the Olympic jitters — even though her whole team’s fate was resting on her blades — to take the judges and online audience’s breath away.
Of course, it isn’t all celebratory.
It was hard not to wince with empathy when China’s Zhu Yi, fell seconds into her team free skate routine on Sunday, and then fell again — finishing her performance in tears.
“The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat,” as sportscaster Jim McKay so famously said.
But still, knowing that these athletes have been training through all the ups and downs of these past pandemic years is inspiring in and of itself.
Some athletes had to train while only seeing their coaches via Zoom. To be there competing on the world stage is to have overcome.
“Sport has the power to change the world,” Nelson Mandela, the late South African president and anti-apartheid hero, once said. “It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers.”
It is an understatement to say we could all use some uniting these days.
Lucky for us, the Sea to Sky has more than its fair share of athletes represented that we can cheer for — about 20 competing in 10 events.
So if you haven’t caught Olympic fever yet, this weekend allows you to check out Squamish’s Cassie Sharpe — her brother Darcy Sharpe, of Comox — and plenty of other amazing Canadian athletes giving it their all.
And if that is not enough, after that we can tune in and cheer on the athletes in the Winter Paralympics starting March 4.
That should take us through spring and leave us all feeling more hopeful, proud and inspired.
