We have to say, we just never tire of seeing Canadians on the podium during Olympic Games action.
With the rugby sevens women tearing up the pitch for a bronze medal against Great Britain in the sport’s Olympic debut and female swimmers making waves in the pool for a silver and two bronze (so far) after a long medal drought, our Olympians are doing us proud.
Throw in recent upset victories in men’s volleyball over Brazil and the U.S., in the sand and on the court, respectively, along with other top performances, and these Rio Games may well be something to remember long afterward. Our summer Olympians are certainly demonstrating that Canada is not a winter-only sports nation.
And isn’t it great that all these athletes are seemingly coming out of nowhere to claim those medals and turn in the performances of their lives?
Not really.
The trouble is, except for just a few short months in any given four-year Olympics cycle, mainstream media, big media, whatever you prefer to call it, pays little to no attention to amateur athletes.
Unlike community newspapers such as the one you’re holding in your hands, where amateur, local athletes and sport is our bread and butter, daily newspapers and television – when they take any note of non-professional sports – will typically write, post or broadcast under “other sports.”
Big media’s main focus is professional sport – NHL, NFL, NBA, MLB – and everything else struggles to gain a few words deep, deep in the back pages of a newspaper sports section, or a few quick seconds on TV.
That’s why one of the Maple “Leaves” pulling a hamstring would trump almost any amateur sports story among Toronto-centric sports media, for example.
Now that Olympic coverage of amateur athletes is on the tube and on the page, we would point out that a broadcast outlet from the city to the east had a reporter in Rio who admitted she didn’t know anything about rugby sevens before she arrived in Brazil – but commented on what a feat the win was.
After Canada’s huge rugby bronze game, Ghislain Landry commented that, “I’m glad people got to see the chance to see that, because that’s what we can do on a regular basis.”
After a bronze in the pool, just-turned-16 Penny Oleksiak, the sudden darling of swimming after winning a silver and bronze (so far), commented that a friend sent her a message saying they heard a crowd outside a bar cheering during her race. She noted how exciting it was that people were watching her race.
So the problem is that, outside of a fairly close circle surrounding most amateur sports, nobody knows what’s going on with them. Amateur athletes in an Olympics four-year cycle are always grinding away in obscurity as they follow their passion.
Yes, Olympics occur only every four years, but outside of professional athletes who take part in the games as a lark (ie. NBA, NHL, PGA golfers), true Olympians are in it for the long haul, not just as a break from their regular competition schedule.
It’s also why, across the country, many of the athletes who are now making Canadians proud do have their exploits covered by community news sources throughout the Olympics cycle – the exploits just don’t translate to “big media” coverage.
Finally, we must comment on the fact that Russian swimmers, in particular, are being roundly booed when they step onto the pool deck in Rio. While it’s unfortunate that anyone is getting the razzberry, as it does detract from the sportsmanship side of the Olympics, maybe backlash against drug cheating has at long last reached the point where it’s an Olympic-sized concern.
Maybe the International Olympic Committee will finally take drug cheats as seriously as their International Paralympic Committee brethren, who summoned the nerve to ban outright Russian athletes as punishment for what is viewed as state-sponsored cheating.
In the meantime, Go Canada Go.
