Own the Podium

Funny how a name can mean so many different things to different people. I have heard people comment that "Own the Podium" is unCanadian, it flies against Canadian graciousness and humble demeanor. Only this morning I read that perhaps the name itself puts too much pressure on the athletes. I guess it's all in how you see it.

I see the name "own the podium" from an athletes perspective. To see Canadians as rightly deserving to stand on the podium, to see Canadians as leaders and innovators, and as the team to beat. This is a powerful shift in an athletes mind. It is a shift our own rowing team went through way back in 1992 when, for the first time in decades, we began to see ourselves for the leaders that we were. That year Canadians won four gold medals, and a handful of bronze and silver. It was after that year that we began to see ourselves as leaders, not just lucky to have won a medal, but a team with expectations and a history of winning to uphold. This was not a bad thing, it is the same pressure that the Romanians and Germans had managed for years, and it gave us both pride and confidence to know we were a team to be reckoned with. Well before these Olympic Games our athletes have been showing that they are fast becoming leaders. Jennifer Heil in moguls, Cindy Klassen and then Christine Nesbitt, our downhill skiers who rocked the slopes last season and put everybody on notice.

The Olympics is not an all comers meet.  If we want to win on this stage we must be courageous enough to invest in our athletes, to put money where the greatest chance of medals are; without apology. Own the Podium dares to state that we have come to win. Is that unCanadian?