Sports is about winning and losing. Whether it’s the grossly overpaid multi-million dollar hockey player in the Stanley Cup playoffs, a child playing his or her first game, or a Special Olympian battling to overcome his or her disability to achieve success at the Canada Winter Games. They are all giving their absolute best.
Sports is also about emotion — the joy of success, the sadness of defeat. While millions of dollars separate the professional athlete from the Special Olympian, an even bigger difference is passion. There is a certain phoniness about a Evgeni Malkin jumping into the glass after scoring a goal, or the Lambeau Leap by a Green Bay Packer. There is nothing but true, honest passion erupting from the heart of a Special Olympian winning a medal.
Watch a Special Olympian raise her arms in victory then rush to hug her coach or parent or teammate and then cry for joy when she gets that gold medal – that’s honest emotion and passion.
Yet, for the last few weeks coaches and officials from the Special Olympics have been saying how the Games are about the athletes doing their best, whether they win a medal or not. It’s a nice party line, following the mission statement of Special Olympics Canada: “Enriching the lives of Canadians with an intellectual disability through sport.”
Being a Special Olympics athlete is about enjoying sport and choosing to challenge oneself, says Special Olympics Canada. True. But that’s only half the story.
Granted, for many of the athletes here this week a gold medal was not a realistic goal — participating and doing their best was. But many others were here to win gold medals, perhaps earn a trip to the world championships in China.
“Just as Bold. Here for Gold.” That’s the theme of these Games in St. Albert and it’s a more accurate description of what the Games is about.
“It reflects the fact Special Olympics athletes share the same passion and goals as their Olympic counterparts,” says the Games website.
So where is the medal count? While these Games are about individuals performing, it is also — as every Games inevitably are — about us versus them. Games are about teams and provinces and countries, and while Special Olympics Canada may frown upon keeping a medal count, you can bet provincial reps are doing just that.
The International Olympic Committee also frowned upon keeping medal counts, so the media did it independently at Olympic Games because people want to know. It’s why the Own The Podium program was created, to improve Canada’s Olympic medal count because every Canadian fan wants to know, how does Canada stack up against the world?
If you had wandered around Servus Place or stopped at the nearby Tim’s for coffee this week, one of the questions being heard often is, who’s winning the most medals? They don’t mean what athlete, they mean what province?
Medal counts are important, to the athletes, to their coaches, to their teams, to the provinces and to the fans. Albertans want to kick Ontario butt, and vice versa. Which of the Maritime provinces is the strongest? Everybody wants to know how the other person or team is doing, so why deny that?
Unfortunately it’s too late for these Games but let’s get real and make it a mandatory part of all future Games.
