A golden opportunity is at hand
The golden glow will not quickly fade after the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. It was a great party, celebrated across Canada—a national party for our national pride. Canada has indeed come of age. Our athletes can compete and win with the best in the world.
It was interesting to watch footage from the 1988 Calgary Olympics and contrast it with what we saw of Vancouver 2010. Where were the red shirts, the waving flags or even a few maple leaves in 1988? This year it seems there were enough of those red Olympic mitts for every pair of hands in the country.
Canadians everywhere wore hats, shirts and scarves to cheer on our teams. We had flags on our cars and flags on our houses.
Energy and spirit
I was at the Olympics in Vancouver. I have never seen anything like it. There was such energy and spirit. And of course there were many people from other countries cheering on their teams. Some Canadians had divided loyalties, wearing flags from other countries along with their Canadian gear.
But what lasting impact will this have on our country? Will we suffer from post-Olympic let-down? Let's face it, the Speech from the Throne and the budget have a strong focus on belt-tightening. This is not a heartening message. It is sort of like getting the bills in January after an extravagant Christmas.
One lasting impact is the message to Canadians that our athletes are as good as any others in the world. Canadians have historically had an inferiority complex; we heard many times that Canada had not won a gold medal at an Olympics on home turf. Well, we made up for lost time in this Olympics.
Provide a lift
This has the potential to provide a lift for Canada in many areas. Of course, all that wonderful TV footage of Vancouver will give that area a tourist boost for months and years to come. But Canadian business in general has the potential to benefit. The rationale is that if we have excellent athletes and we put on a great Olympics, we must have excellent products and services. That maple leave has caché.
We also realized that properly funding athletes makes a difference. The "Own the Podium" program funded coaching and technology enhancements for promising young athletes. Many of those athletes performed very well, some winning gold medals.
What would happen if we put even modest resources to some other priorities? We might develop new science and technology innovations, perhaps as envisioned in the speech from the throne. We might make some real progress on green technology.
New heroes
Our young people have new heroes. They have seen what hard work and determination can achieve. Our athletes, despite some beer drinking and cigar smoking, are generally more positive role models than rock stars and movie idols. I did miss seeing Cindy Klassen's outspoken Christian faith. She competed, but recent knee surgeries prevented her from winning.
Christians engaged in many positive activities during these Olympic Games. Chaplains helped deal with the grief from the Georgian luger's terrible accident just before the Olympics. Christians handed out tracts and Bibles at key locations and gave folks hot chocolate as they waited in line.
We have a great deal to work with and build on. This is a golden opportunity (pun intended) to call forth the Olympic spirit, "higher, faster, stronger" in our own lives and the life of our nation. We can develop a healthy national self image. As Christians, we can also seek opportunities to share the gospel where we can and reach out a helping hand to those in need.
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