This Olympic year, delayed 12 months by the pandemic, seems like an appropriate time to share one sports writer’s “medal-winning performances” from Games past.
It began when I took my vacation for a no-expenses-paid trip to Mexico City for the 1968 Olympics. As the Winnipeg Tribune’s swimming writer (once, there were swimming writers), I was eager to see Canada’s best swimmer, Elaine Tanner, on the medal podium. This was also the Olympics known around the world for the black power salutes by U.S. sprinters John Carlos and Tommie Smith (precursor to Black Lives Matter). I was in Estadio Olympico for the historic moment. If I even noticed their raised black-gloved fists, it was of little significance. This was just before another historic event: Canada’s equestrian team won gold, for which I was equally unprepared. As “media medal moments” go, this was an inauspicious debut.
Eight years later, in Montreal, I was a senior sports writer at the city’s major English newspaper. I saw the Opening Ceremonies, a day of track and field, and the soccer final (East Germany over Poland). Despite my Mexico experience and the Pan-American Games in Winnipeg, my reporting was restricted to a non-Olympic sport, major-league baseball and its pathetic Expos. Who knows why? Then again, Canada didn’t win any gold medals either.
Then there was Lake Placid, 1980. I was one of three radio reporters covering the Winter Games for Standard Broadcasting stations across Canada, including the famous “Miracle On Ice” hockey game. The U.S. victory over the USSR wasn’t such a big deal — it only guaranteed the Americans a medal, and they still had to beat Finland to win gold. What was the score in the Russia game again? Oh yes, 4-3.
Two Olympics later, Calgary. Heading an editorial team that produced the Official Souvenir Program, I declined an all-expenses-paid trip to be a spectator at the Games (death in the family). Instead, I parked in front of the television at home.
Fast forward to 2010. Living in British Columbia, within driving distance of Vancouver’s Winter Games and Canada’s Miracle On Ice in its greatest Olympics ever, I saw every event…just the way folks in Saskatoon, Fort Frances and Halifax did — on TV.
Tokyo in 2021?
Even if the Games aren’t cancelled, it’s better that I take a pass.
