Monday, March 1, 2010

The Greatest Tournament Ever!

Well, the Games of the 21st Winter Olympiad have closed. We witnessed some truly amazing feats such as United States men’s speed skater Apollo Ono becoming the greatest ever in his sport, women’s skier Lindsay Vonn winning a gold medal on a bum leg, and the Canadian men’s curling team capturing gold on home soil (yes, I like curling ). However, there was one event that captured the attention of most Olympic fans --- the finest display of competition in the history of the Winter Olympics.

The Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament.

From game one to the final game, I have never seen such skill, intensity, and passion in so many games. My goodness, even teams like Latvia and Norway played tremendous hockey! Switzerland had a chance to beat both the Canadians and Team USA, Slovakia gave Canada all they could handle, and of course the Gold Medal game between Canada and Team USA was perhaps the greatest game played in Olympic history.

Where else can you find a collection of great players on a sheet of ice? The National Hockey League’s very best players from Sidney Crosby to Alexander Ovechkin, Ilya Kovalchuk to Zach Parise, are some of the most elite athletes in the world. To play in one venue simply blows the minds of not just hockey diehards but casual fans as well. If you weren’t a hockey fan before, watching this tournament would have mage you a fan for sure!

Of course, playing in Canada, the birthplace of hockey, certainly helped bring hockey to the forefront of all North Americans. The crowds were raucous, which in turn gave the Canadians extra energy to play at peak levels.

I don’t feel the need to recap any great moments during the tournament --- we watched and we marveled. We saw the very best play out of the very best players. That is cut and dried.


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1 comment:

  1. This Olympics actually renewed any interest I had in random sports events. I wrote about curling, but there are plenty of sports that I would never have been exposed to otherwise unless I watched the games.

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