Silken's Blog

So my kids and I were at men's Snowboard Cross last week. This is the sport where snowboarders come down the course four by four, sometimes gently nudging one another, sometimes spectacularly wiping out across one another; one minute a boarder is leading, the next minute he's fallen into fourth place. I digress. My point is that we are on the bleachers and there are twenty American fans behind us. Every time an American comes down, the chanting for U S A, U S A begins, and the flag waving and the screaming, and it's loud and overt and part of me thinks, yes I cringe to admit it, those Americans are so obnoxious.  Talk about stereotypes.  If they are obtuse and obnoxious, what the heck are we?

In the last week I have witnessed the loudest, reddest, most uninhibited display of spectator enthusiasm as I have ever witnessed at any event, in any country, ever.  Really.  The Dutch and their drums, the Americans and their flags, the Germans with their spontaneous song - they got nothing on us red cladden, flag carrying Canadians.  Yes, we have officially become the loudest, biggest, maybe even most obnoxious, fans in the world.  It's a fact.

Some are calling this our coming out party and you know, maybe it is. Maybe we have finally figured out just how amazing this country really is, what an incredible privilege it is to be born here or to choose it as our home. Maybe we have finally figured out we have allot to be proud of and it is time to drop the humble, ah shucks attitude. Our athletes are good, and yes we love that they are winning. As my coach Mike Spracklen used to say, "let's have fun, let's have fun winning."  It's fun to be good, and it's fun to win, and none of us should be self conscious that we are cheering. Sometimes we fall a little short. This is sport, the stakes are high and the difference between fourth and gold is less than a decimal.  Mellisa Hollingsworth has nothing to be ashamed of, she trained well and competed well, but she made a few mistakes.  In our country we have room for being human, in fact it is the humanity of our athletes that instil the greatest pride.  Joannie Rochette competing despite the devastating news of her mom's death; you bet we will be watching and cheering her on regardless of her performance.  It is Alexandre Bilodeau's performance and story that make us crazy with pride.

Canada has turned forty.  Every woman in her forties knows exactly what I mean.  We have dropped any pretence of what we should be and become who we really are. Go Canada. --Silken

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? --Silken

I was talking to some of my Olympic comrades this weekend and as a group, they are feeling a little left out. Here are the Olympics happening on Canadian soil, and the majority of Olympic athletes, never mind the majority of Canadians, can't even get tickets. I am getting emails everyday from Olympians asking me if I have any special connection to tickets. There were no special ways for Olympians to get tickets and not alot of offers for anybody but a select few to get involved in the games. The COC released a few hundred tickets just before the games began, but most of the events were sold out, and hundreds of Olympic athletes didn't even get the email. For athletes who have competed in the Olympic Games, the Vancouver Olympics is more than a big sporting event, in some ways it is each Olympians sacred trust. They are and will always be connected to the games. Many of Canada's Olympians have been part of making Olympic history and have contributed to building Olympic pride and excellence in this country. It does seem ironic that they can't get tickets to see the Games in their own backyard. My one girlfriend, Colleen Miller a three time World Champion and Olympic rower was not even asked to carry the flame through her hometown in Manitoba. A little bit of an oversight I'd say, particularly in that the town sports a statue in her honour. Hundreds of Olympic athletes , including Olympic medallists, didn't have a chance to carry the Olympic flame while other athletes carried the flame in multiple locations.

I expect their are a myriad of sensible reasons and inevitable oversights that occur when putting on an event of this magnitude, but it embarrasses me that on the one hand we are cheering our current winter Olympians and honouring them for the heroes they are, and on the other we are treating our former Olympians as if they don't matter. I think they do matter, and I think VANOC could have done more to include these valuable athletes in these wonderful games. In Canada's vibrant Olympic tapestry each athlete is an important and colourful thread. --Silken

Christine Nesbitt’s speed skating gold medal really affected me.

There was something about her quiet demeanour that I relate to. While all of Canada is cheering and going crazy like they just won gold, in some ways you feel separate from it, even though you are the centre of it.

Winning is a deeply personal experience. Who except Christine can really understand all of the physical pain she has endured, the nights awake with the stress of competition, the hundreds of times she was wracked with self-doubt? Maybe I am talking about myself right now and maybe this is how I relate.

So many people at the oval asked me yesterday if Christine’s winning skate brought back memories. The crowds and the screaming didn't bring back memories and in some ways I thought that odd. But I think I am beginning to understand why.
That was not my Olympic experience. The cheering and the hugging and flag waving is my experience today with my kids. But winning as an athlete resonated deeply in my soul, along with the satisfaction, the relief and the pride. Those words seem like skeletons of the real emotions behind them.

When I watched Christine receive her medal, somewhat dumbfounded by the crazy cheering last night in BC Stadium, I could see she was having her own personal experience with winning. I was happy that she could find a place to be in the real emotion of what she was feeling while allowing others to enjoy her win in their own way.

This commitment to a personal and internal experience is how a racer excels amidst the pressure of competition, so it’s no surprise that it’s also the way many athletes will choose to experience winning. - Silken
 

The oval was shaking from shouts of “go Canada go” for Christine Nesbitt. When halfway through that last lap she looked to be still almost half a second off pace and I really wondered whether she could pull it though. And then there she was crossing, and when we all looked up it said Canada first and the crowd went crazy. High-fiving complete strangers like it were our own medal. My son William, mouth open wide, simply shouting “Gold”. My daughter burst into tears; because it was so loud she sat down just before Ms. Nesbitt finished, and now she says she missed the gold medal. Could be seven days of all out Olympic excitement, miles of walking and late nights, are finally getting to her. Funny, but I never remember shouting and high-fiving when I won my own medals. I felt too much relief that it was over, mixed with quiet satisfaction that I had pushed through the pain and the pressure; also, extreme exhaustion and the poison of lactic acid in my muscles. It is funny how different my perspective is; I am really into the experience of being a fan and when the athletes don't wave at the crowd I am kind of disappointed for the crowd even though clearly I understand it is just that the athlete is focussed. Now I find myself wondering if I took time to wave to the crowd in Atlanta, or if I felt it was too egotistical to stoop and acknowledge the applause. Hockey just finished and I am not going too far into that one or it will only reveal my ignorance. What I can say is there I'd be screaming and cheering on the streets of Vancouver every time Canada scored a goal. Nice job of keeping us on our toes boys! Until tomorrow. --Silken