For 17 days Canadians engaged in a massive outpouring of national pride as athletes representing our country at the 2010 Winter Olympics delivered a stunning performance that saw Canada win the most medals it has ever won in history – 26 – as well as take first place in the gold medal count (the official Olympic scoring system) with 14 gold medals, which set a new record for any nation at a Winter Games.
The previous record of 13 gold medals by any country at the Winter Olympics had been set by the Soviet Union in 1976 and tied by Norway in 2002. Canada’s best total medal performance of the past had been in Torino, Italy, in 2006.
Ukrainian Canadians can take particular pride in the performance of Lucas Makowsky, who with teammates Denny Morrison and Mathieu Giroux, bested the United States in the Men’s Speed Skating Team Pursuit final to win the gold.
While we take pride in the achievements of any Canadian of Ukrainian origin. Makowsky’s win is so special because he is so much involved with our community.
Lucas, who speaks English, Ukrainian (his mother tongue) and French, was an active member of the Canadian Ukrainian Youth Association (CYMK in Ukrainian) in both Regina, where he was born and grew up, and Calgary, where he is now working towards a double major in Chemical Engineering and Economics at the University of Calgary. He was also a member of Regina’s Ukrainian dance group Tavria and has helped out at the Ukrainian Orthodox Church camps including Camp Tryzub where his late mother Shirley designed the buildings as an architect. He attended Regina’s Ridna Shkola as a child.
But while we, as Canadians of Ukrainian origin, take particular pride in Makowsky’s accomplishment, as Canadians in general we revel in the spectacular showing by all our athletes, who represent the greatly diverse cultural mosaic that is Canada.
The most poignant moment of the Olympics was 24-year-old figure skater from Île Dupas, Quebec, Joannie Rochette’s, remarkable performance in the Short Programme just one day after the tragic death of her mother. Two days later she skated to the bronze, becoming Canada’s first women’s singles medallist since 1988 and providing an immense inspiration to all. For this she was elected Canada’s Flag Bearer at the Closing Ceremony and awarded the Vancouver 2010 Terry Fox Award – an international award for those who showed determination and character at the 2010 Olympic Games.
The most thrilling moment was Sidney Crosby’s overtime goal in the gold medal game against the United States, which provided the most fitting close to the most successful Olympics. It also marked a stunning comeback for Team Canada, which had been relegated to the qualification round after the preliminaries in which they were forced into a shootout with the Swiss and lost to the U.S after being stymied by a hot goalie. But they came back, trouncing Germany 8-2, humiliating Russia 7-3 (which set up a new round of purges in the neo-Soviet state), but barely making it by a gritty Slovak team, surviving a last-minute onslaught mainly through sheer luck and goalposts. Even in the final game they faced adversity as the United States sent the game into overtime in the dying seconds.
Many other highlights took place — Alex Bilodeau winning Canada’s first gold medal on Canadian soil, in freestyle moguls; Maëlle Ricker becoming Canada’s first female gold medallist on Canadian soil, after winning the snowboard cross competition; Clara Hughes (speed skating) winning her sixth career medal (bronze), tying Cindy Klassen for the most all-time by a Canadian and François-Louis Tremblay (short track) captured his fourth and fifth career medals, putting him second all-time, just to mention a few.
This great outpouring of pride pushed these athletes along and created a spirit of goodwill in Canada that will carry on to the future. It also created indelible memories that will last forever.
Marco Levytsky is the editor and publisher of Ukrainian News, a bi-weekly newspaper distributed across Canada.
