My Olympic experience officially ended at 5:43 AM this morning (March 25th) when I put my Team Canada jersey on the “shelf.”
We all have a shelf like this one. Up high or down low, in some far reaches of your closet or your basement. It stores items you love but are only to be worn in the right setting. Or in some cases you are storing them for some future use.
For your personal Hall of Fame. For your grandchildren. For your casket. For the “next time.”
My shelf holds a Minnesota Gophers sweatshirt. A Leafs jersey from a long ago playoff clash with Carolina. An Emery Collegiate coaching shirt from 1996. A USC football T-shirt. A Boca Grande shirt from some vacation or other.
And now my Team Canada hockey jersey. I have to admit mine wasn’t an official 2010 Olympic jersey. No mine was a 2008 World Hockey Championship variety. But it did the job.
The job was to tell everyone else in Canada that I was on their team. Team Canada.
This was a “team” that overcame poor public support for the Games less than a month before they started.
This was a team that staged the longest torch relay in Olympic history.
This was a team that overcame the tragic death of a visiting young athlete, and later, the death of the mother of one our star athletes.
This was a team that overcame critics and Americans mocking our Own the Podium program.
This was a team that helped Alex Bilodeau and Brian McKeever become the first Canadians to respectively win Olympic and Paralympic gold on home soil.
This was a team that danced in the streets, partied ‘til dawn, sat glued to the TV and Internet.
Yes, I was a part of Team Canada.
Team Canada was put together by many special people. Thousands of volunteers, sponsors, workers, government officials, coaches, trainers, athletes, sports organizations and parents.
Oh amazing it must be to the parent of an Olympian.
All of us were led by an almost mythical father. John Furlong.
After the job he did I’m ready to anoint him the Father of a New Confederation. Team Canada.
Our heroic Father Furlong dropped by the Canadian Sponsorship Forum last weekend. He spoke for 18 minutes. I cried for 17.
He spoke of his organizing team bonding together after the tragedy on opening day. He spoke of a nation rallying behind our men’s hockey team and how Canada rightfully deserved that victory for all of its hard work. He spoke of how a volunteer from Moncton approached him to tell him she was dying of cancer. Her family didn’t want her to be away for the length of the Olympics. But she was so glad she did. Because for the first time in her ‘average existence’ (her words), she felt her life had meaning.
It’s too much to ask one man to keep Team Canada going. But I really don’t want to put away my jersey.
Can you give me a reason to bring it back out?
Can you organize an event that celebrates our country? Can you sponsor one? Can you participate in one?
I beg you to try. I need that feeling back. I need the passion I felt in Vancouver during the Olympics.
I need that emotion I felt in Whistler during the Paralympics. I want to keep wearing my jersey.
I exited the medals plaza in Whistler in Sunday following the closing ceremonies, I realized it was over. The lump in my throat was there.
This morning when I put my jersey away, that lump got even larger.
Truly I’m sad. So sad. I can only imagine the people who had a bigger hand in these events. I was just one little person. One tiny member of Team Canada.
But thank-you to those who made it happened. What a glorious month its been.
I am Canadian.