The Winter Olympics are well underway in Sochi, and Canada’s already raking in the medals. Whether we’ll get a repeat performance of Vancouver 2010 remains to be seen – but there are still so many reasons to be a proud Canadan during this time of year!
No matter what country someone is from, Canadians will help in their time of need.
After his own athletes were eliminated early on in the competition, Justin Wadsworth – the Canadian men’s cross country skiing coach – went to watch the semi-finals. As he watched with a crowd of spectators he saw Russian athlete Anton Gafarov coming over a rise and struggling miserably.
Gafarov then crashed down twice, breaking one ski before trying to drag himself to the finish line. When no one moved to help him, Wadsworth grabbed a spare ski that he had brought for one of his athletes earlier and ran out to switch with the Russian skier. No words were spoken between the two, but Gafarov was able to finish the race. Even though Wadsworth knew that the athlete would be far behind others, he wanted him to be able to finish with dignity.
The heartwarming and inspring stories!
The only person that Canadian freestyle skier Alex Bilodeau, wanted to celebrate his gold medal win with was his older brother, Frederic. You might remember these brothers from when Bilodeau won gold at the 2010 games in Vancouver!
Frederic was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy when he was young, and was told that he would never walk past the age of 12. Now, over 15 years later he is capable of walking and has been standing on the sidelines while the younger Bilodeau competes. When Alex won gold this time around, he pulled his brother out over the boards to block of spectators. Bilodeau has told many different people in interviews that his inspiration comes from his older brother. Could they get any cuter?
The support that fellow Canadians show for the athletes…even when they’re not having their golden moment.
Canadians have always been stereotyped as polite and friendly, but things have gotten past that point for Canadian short track skaters Marianne St. Gelais and Charles Hamelin. The two are often remembered for their passionate kiss at the 2010 winter games in Vancouver and the couple, who have been together for six years, continue to show their support for each other from the sidelines.
There are also many other Canadian couples showing their support for each other. Curling couple Brent Laing and Jennifer Jones are currently in Sochi together, even though Laing is not competing. He has yet to make it to the Olympics but still traveled halfway across the world to support his partner.
Canadian athletes will take one for the team.
Canadian speed skater Gilmore Junio gave up his spot in the men’s 1000m race for teammate Denny Morrison. Even though it was Junio that qualified for the 1000m race, he knew that Morrison was a stronger distance skater and gave up his spot to help his country win. After Morrison took his place in the race he went on to win silver and started a campaign through twitter to make Junio the Canadian flag bearer in the closing ceremonies. Fellow Canadian athletes and fans agree, and have been supporting Morrison’s idea via Twitter.
We were 1st in placement for the first time in both the Summer and Winter Olympics.
On day four, Canada reached the top of the standings for both overall medals and gold medals with 4 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze medals. Later on in the day we were surpassed by Norway, but it’s still an important moment in Canadian Olympic history! Our athletes are dedicated and work hard to be where they are and it seemed to be paying off. Whether we win or lose, I think we can be proud of every athlete that participated in these games!