Sunday, March 02, 2014

Oh Canada, you mighty glorious winner!


http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/525729-canada-wins-sochi-2014-gold-over-sweden-in-mens-ice-hockey-three-takeaways/?photo=2 


Yes, this is a photo of the victorious Canadian men's hockey team. Look at that nice gold bling!

Yes, Canada beat Sweden in the Olympic gold medal game on Sunday.

Yes, Chall is Swedish.

Yes, this post is the result of a lost wager on the game.

Yes, this is Cath . Hi!

Chall and I made the bet right after Canada beat the US in the semi-final. I watched the final period of that game with dozens of colleagues in the lunchroom at work, and there was much cheering and high-fiving at the end. All charged up, I took to Twitter to make a bet with our gracious Swedish host.

Two days later, I got up at 3:40 am (yes, you read that right, and I know how ridiculous that is) to watch the final, thinking "well, at least if we lose, it's to Sweden. I like Sweden".

Because, really, who doesn't like Sweden?

The game wasn't half as exciting as the much closer Canada-US semi final. It wasn't anywhere near as exciting as the Canada-US women's final earlier that week, when the Canadians came back from a 2-0 deficit with five minutes left and won in overtime in one of the most exciting games of any sport I've ever followed.

No, in the men's final against Sweden, Canada were dominant, scored early, took a 3-0 lead, and never looked like losing. We celebrated at the end, of course - winning the Olympic hockey gold medal is pretty crucial to our self-identity, eh? But did I want to gloat, or to mock the losing Swedish team?

Hell no - I wanted to give them all a big hug. Especially Daniel Sedin.

And then something wonderful happened on Twitter. #HardToTrashTalkSweden started to trend in Canada; #HardToTrashTalkCanada started to trend in Sweden (they must not know about Harper). Some of my favourites are in this screen capture:

Now that's true Olympic spirit! The internet can be a wonderful place sometimes.

Take THAT, Sweden!



----------------------------------------------------------------------
Additional photo from me (chall) since Canada did indeed 
win it all in the hockey - women and men. 
A truly remarkable feat! Congratulations Canada!
http://www.bu.edu/today/2014/basking-in-olympic-gold/

3 comments:

Cath@VWXYNot? said...

Thank you Chall! (Especially for the bonus winning team photo!) Yes, we are mighty and glorious indeed!

I still want to hug all the sad Swedes. Bring on 2018!

Nina said...

brilliant!
Too bad the Dutch don't do hockey on ice ;)

chall said...

Cath: I aim to please :)

Nina:the Dutch took all the medals on the skating with speed ice so I'm happy they left some for the rest of us ;)