Passion hits close to home
Enduring sports moments and true stars mirror the values and breadth of the nation
As a teenager, one of the clearest memories I have is of running, screaming and yelling out of the house on a September Thursday afternoon in 1972 to find all the neighbourhood kids doing the same thing after Paul Henderson’s electrifying goal.
But just as burned into the mind is the exhilarating feeling late on the Friday night 16 years hence, when Ben Johnson did the impossible. The shame that followed was real — even if he was just the first to get caught — but it was one of those moments in which sports brought the country together, just as the Saturday night eight years later did when Donovan Bailey removed the Johnson taint and made us proud.
The story of sports in Canada is really the story of the country itself, a tale of this gigantic and almost overwhelming melding of cultures and people and interests that is nearly impossible to put into any clear perspective except that it repre- sents “us.”
It is as diverse a saga as we are a diverse society, weaving from the traditional games of Indigenous people before Confederation through a sequestered, insular and then-emerging world, to these shrunken global times when we measure ourselves against the world and everything seems to happen in real time.
It’s trite to say “We are hockey” and sum up Canadian sports through the decades by hiding behind the timeworn and misguided notion that suggests a singular attention paid to one sport over all others.
There have been “hockey moments,” of course — the Summit Series and Sidney Crosby’s golden goal might be two of the most memorable Canadian moments of the last half-century — but our history is so much more, so much richer, so allencompassing and always evolving, as our society is.
If there is one thing that shines through all years, all the people, all the moments, good and bad, it’s that sports in Canada has a way of bringing Canadians together. How many people woke up early on a weekend morning to see if Milos Raonic or Genie Bouchard could deliver the country a Grand Slam? How many sat glued to television sets one Sunday afternoon wondering if the green jacket would fit Mike Weir? We watch the Olympics like few countries on Earth, ready to explode with joy at not only medal-winning performances but other inspiring stories. We cheer for athletes of every stripe in every sport because we are so much more than just one. And we’ve done it forever. In a simpler, less connected time, we awoke to read about the exploits of our favourite daughters and sons in the daily newspapers, connected not by the farreaching media of the current times but by a genuine patriotic hope that the athletes who represent Canada would do well and do us proud.
It has been woven into the fabric of the country for time immemorial, perhaps because the athletes embody truly Canadian traits: humility, a desire to push themselves as hard as they can, and as far as they can go, and take whatever results that brings.
We don’t brag much. We just do. And the sense of accomplishment is shared by fellow citizens, often in private ways. We don’t boast an awful lot, but we know we’re good and that’s often been enough. It’s strutting, but strutting quietly. It’s not bragging. It’s doing. In the Star’s mammoth 10-part series that concludes on this our 150th birthday, the goal has been to educate and inform and entertain, to stir memories and to bring to light the many, many significant accomplishments of the women and men who have so proudly represented Canada on an international stage or who have been “ours” as they ply their trades at various levels of competition.
And through it, one undeniable fact has emerged: The breadth of our stories and the depth of their impact are hard to comprehend and impossible to pigeonhole.
The gist is this: There are so many reasons to celebrate, so many moments to remember. Paul Henderson scored and we leapt with joy, like he did, and it was a moment. But it was not the only moment, not even close.
The stories are as big as the country itself, and as wide-ranging. Important stories that show our growth, the scope of our impact on the world and each other.
Stories from everywhere.