{"id":456981,"date":"2026-02-06T05:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T05:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/456981\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T05:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T05:30:09","slug":"welcome-to-the-olympics-where-canada-is-swaggering-and-the-u-s-may-not-notice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/456981\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to the Olympics, where Canada is swaggering and the U.S. may not notice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Canadian Olympic Committee CEO and secretary general David Shoemaker, second left, didn’t try to keep appearances up when he spoke about Canada’s relationship with the U.S. at a Thursday news conference in Milan.DARRYL DYCK\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

In their opening comments on Thursday, the Canadian Olympic Committee tried to telegraph that there are two Games happening here in Italy. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s the hands-across-the-water version they use in Canadian Tire commercials. And then there\u2019s the real one \u2013 good guys vs. U.S.A.<\/p>\n

For years, the crew charged with running our Olympic operation hasn\u2019t said boo to a goose, unless it\u2019s Russia and everyone else has already piled in. Now all of a sudden, they\u2019re out there throwing wild haymakers. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor Canadians, there\u2019s always something special about the Winter Games, never more so it seems than perhaps this winter when tensions globally are high and our sporting rivalry with our neighbour to the south is at a fever pitch,\u201d said COC CEO David Shoemaker.<\/p>\n

Whoa, whoa, someone get hold of his arms. He\u2019s going to kill them. <\/p>\n

On the eve of the Olympics, Milan shakes its blues away and starts to enjoy the buzz<\/a><\/p>\n

COC president Tricia Smith was less cheery, and more gnomic. <\/p>\n

\u201cOn the field of play, Canadians are fierce competitors. Off the field of play, we\u2019re partners in the pursuit of excellence, and often the very best of friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you weren\u2019t raised to speak this country\u2019s most difficult-to-master dialect, passive-aggression, that sounds nice. If you were, you know that that \u201coften\u201d is meant to be more brutal than a kick to the crotch. <\/p>\n

Pressed later on the rivalry, everyone backed right off. Because that\u2019s how it works in Canada. We don\u2019t insult you with insults. We do it with compliments that you\u2019re meant to understand are insults. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Canadian Olympic Committee president Tricia Smith, left, took a more classically Canadian passive-aggressive approach with her comments on competing against the Americans.DARRYL DYCK\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

\u2018That outfit looks great on you (pause pause pause). No, really.\u2019<\/p>\n

This system of kabuki conversation works well amongst ourselves, but poorly when exported. Hence, the weirdest rivalry in sports \u2013 Canada vs. America \u2013 where only one half of the equation understands how serious it is. <\/p>\n

America thinks this is all meant in fun. And it is. It absolutely is. Total fun, right up until we sweep the legs. <\/p>\n

America\u2019s advantage is brute force. Last year, a billionaire you\u2019ve never heard of guaranteed every future U.S. Olympian a US$200,000 bonus for competing. That bonus is per Games. <\/p>\n

What is Canada doing? Begging for money. Warning that the athlete pool is going dry. Huge swaths of the COC\u2019s hour-long intro presser had the feel of a telethon. They also tried to kickstart the idea of hosting a future Games. <\/p>\n

Cathal Kelly: North over everything: Canada redefines itself for the middle-power era<\/a><\/p>\n

One-year-plus-a-month ago, no one wanted to hear it. Now, people are suddenly very interested in pan-national, culture-building projects. They\u2019re like high-speed rail, but cheaper. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s another layer to Milan for Canada. These Games are the COC\u2019s proof of concept. You want the rest of us to start kicking in some serious cash? Show us what we\u2019re buying. If we\u2019re going to change, you have to change, too. <\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t just about hardware. Medals don\u2019t make Olympic moments. Moments make Olympic moments. <\/p>\n

For instance, I am guessing when I try to remember which medal Jon Montgomery won in Vancouver, but my recollection of watching him chug a pitcher of beer on the street is in Technicolour. More of that feeling, please. Move Canada and Canadian idiosyncrasies to the fore. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Jon Montgomery celebrates his electrifying win in the men’s skeleton competition at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games in B.C. Montgomery walked through Whistler\u2019s pedestrian-only town plaza chugging from a pitcher of beer, donated by a fan, with the devil-may-care attitude that many say made him an Olympic champion.CTV<\/p>\n

Eventually, the Canadian Olympic movement must shift away from early 21st century internationalism juiced by activism, toward a more parochial model. Why not now? Don\u2019t talk to me about climate change. That\u2019s why we have scientists. Talk to us about the thing you are expert in, but put it in big, sweeping, existential terms. The people who rep athletes are always talking about performance. So perform. <\/p>\n

If Milan-Cortina 2026 is a sort of pitch meeting, Canada might have some questions. <\/p>\n

Like, can the Canadian team get everyone in the country pulling in the same direction again, even if it\u2019s just for 17 days? Can they ignite that feeling of pride of place that has abated since Vancouver 2010? Can they make Canada cool to its toughest audience, Canadians?<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve tried speaking in generalities about competition and diversity, and everyone zoned them out. Now they\u2019re inching toward a strategy that will work. <\/p>\n

These are the stick-it-to-Trump Games. Each Canadian medal is a thumb in the eye to every dullard who, upon hearing you are Canadian, leads with a 51st state joke. <\/p>\n

Canada’s best medal chances at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, according to our experts<\/a><\/p>\n

None of them will get that, and that\u2019s fine. We get it. <\/p>\n

Whether any Canadian competitor wants to turn this friendly competition into a brawl is the great unknown. Again, America would have to swing first. This is where everyone turns to look at the Tkachuk brothers. They could make two countries so happy with one out-of-pocket comment. You know they want to. We could learn something from those two. <\/p>\n

The team\u2019s chef de mission, Jennifer Heil, tried to describe the prototype Canadian athlete in three words: \u201cproud, respectful, relentless.\u201d<\/p>\n

With due deference to a great national representative, how about just a little less respectful? We\u2019re not talking about spray painting the flag on the Duomo. Nobody wants a complete rewiring of the national character. We\u2019re just talking about fielding a team that isn\u2019t afraid to speak muscularly on our behalf. <\/p>\n

That needn\u2019t be aggressive. Many of the best Canadian Olympic moments involve a conspicuous display of kindness and sportsmanship. That was already on display here Thursday. Finland could not field a complete hockey team, and Canada agreed to move the game to a later date. That\u2019s us. We do the right thing, even when it\u2019s not to our advantage. <\/p>\n

Would Canada have kicked a little more if it was the U.S. team asking for a mulligan? I hope so. <\/p>\n

Because these Olympics will not be told in medal counts, even in the glamour events. They will matter exactly as much as they allow Canada to show its qualities against our new nemesis. <\/p>\n

America may not see it coming. They may not fully understand what\u2019s happened when it\u2019s over. But we\u2019ll know. And for a nice change, Canada\u2019s is the only opinion Canada is interested in. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Canadian Olympic Committee CEO and secretary general David Shoemaker, second left, didn’t try…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,2922,187287,82,8023],"class_list":{"0":"post-456981","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-noastack","11":"tag-olympicstaff","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-topstory"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}