Well that's it folks. The Olympics are over and now The Paralympics are officially over. That's it. All done.
To be honest, I'm a little sad about it. I really enjoyed the Olympics and the Paralympics. I seen some great stories over the last month or so and it's been a crazy time. I'm very proud of all the Canadian athletes that participated in both games. Just one last time for another 4 years... GO CANADA!
OK. That's out of my system. The Canadians did pretty good at the 2010 Paralympics in Vancouver. After it was all said and done, Canada had
10 gold,
5 silver and
4 bronze medals for
19 in total. Excellent work guys and girls. *claps hands* Those 19 medals helped Canada finish in
3rd overall at the Paralympics. Considering what Canada did at the Olympic games and what Canada did at the Paralympics, I'd say the podium was owned, don't you?
As I said above, there was some key stories that I followed. I watched a lot of the
Team Canada sledge hockey games. As
I had written before, the game of sledge hockey is freaking intense. Massive body checks that would hurt most people were flying all over the place. Those players were not only creative with their plays, they had some very deadly shots. Being a goalie sure didn't look easy.
Canada had won the gold at the last Paralympics and being on home soil this time, they were heavy favorites to win gold once again. In the semi finals they met up with Japan. The game was a hard fought game but the Canadians just couldn't score on the Japanese goalie. He played well and made some huge saves to keep his team in it. But as time was winding down and with the score tied up at one each, the Japanese team found a way to score. With 1:13 left in the 3rd period, the Japanese made it a 2-1 game. With Canada pressing in the last few seconds, they made an error and while making a bad pass, the puck slid all the down into their own net. 3-1 Japan. Game over and so is the gold medal sweep in hockey (
Men's and Ladies won gold in Olympic Games).
So now they were off for the bronze medal game and they were up against Norway. Once again the Canadians were confidant in their team going into the game. I never questioned them NOT winning the bronze. But they didn't. The Norwegians played a heck of a game - they were silver medalists in 2006 - and really took it to the Canadians. They out shot Canada 8-1 in the 3rd period and Canada just couldn't muster any offence and they lost 2-1.
The
gold medal favorites finish 4th. Not how I had envisioned it at all. I'm sure either did they.
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Brian McKeever had himself a few stories. First,
he was going to ski in the Olympics (the men's 50km cross-country race). Then out of the blue, he's not in the because the coach pulled him in favor of another racer who had done well in a earlier event at the games. McKeever was devastated by the news. And rightfully so. He just wanted to be treated fairly regardless if he's visually impaired. He has a slight vision problem where he can't see the straight ahead stuff, just the peripheral view. So obviously when you ski in the Olympics, you can't have a guide and that presents challenges for Brian. His older brother,
Robin McKeever, competes as his guide when Brian skis in the Paralympics. But it was a fight he could not fight so get changed his focus to concentrating on the Paralympics.
He did however do great at the Paralympics and that helped ease the pain from the previous days. Brian McKeever won three gold medals at the 2010 Paralympic Games. And we here at Oilers Jambalaya congratulate Brian McKeever for his dedication and drive to be the best.
- Gold in the
1km Sprint Visually Impaired
- Gold in the
10km Classic Visually Impaired
- Gold in the
20km Freestyle Visually Impaired
The other sports were fun to watch but i really didn't have an attachment to anybody else like sledge hockey and Brian McKeever. I did however learn about a few different sports that I never really knew about. Like the wheelchair curling was fun tho watch. No sweepers, just throw the rock and where it goes, it goes. To win at wheelchair curling, you need to be a skilled shot.
Team Canada in wheelchair curling consists of
Jim Armstrong,
Darryl Neighbour,
Ina Forrest,
Sonja Gaudet and
Bruno Yizek. These fine folks won gold in a thrilling 8-7 game against Korea. This was a very fun game to watch.
I didn't get to watch much of the downhill ski events. But what I did see it was pretty exciting. It takes a lot of guts to do what these athletes do.
Here is a great story about Canadian skier Lauren Woolstencroft who won FIVE gold medals. She was amazing and is such a great story.
Thanks to everyone that helps to put on the Olympic and Paralympic games. You all did a wonderful job.
THANK YOU CANADA!!! WOOoOooOoOOoOOO!!!
**Some of the photos are from Getty Images**
