Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Olympics - Day 8


Day 8 was pretty special for Canada at the 2012 Olympics in London. Understand that we're a relatively small country. Winning a medal of any kind is great for us. So when we won three on Saturday it was a wonderful accomplishment.

Up until that day we had only won seven medals (2 silver and 5 bronze) in total. That all changed when 23-year-old, Rosie MacLennan, of Toronto won gold in Trampoline. She beat her main rivals from China Shanshan Huang (silver) and He Wenna (bronze). Unfortunately they bumped fellow Canadian Karen Cockburn to fourth.

In the pool Ryan Cochrane edged out Tunisian swimmer Oussama Mellouli for silver in the Men's 1500-metre Freestyle. China's Sun Yang won the event going away setting a new world record at 14:31.02.

Finally the trio of Gillian Carleton, Jasmin Glaesser and Tara Whitten won bronze on the track in the Women's Team Pursuit. They edged out a game Australian team over the 12-lap (3000-metre) race by less than two-tenths of a second. Thrilling.

Sadly it wasn't all happy news for Canadian Olympic fans. We saw a tearful Paula Findlay struggle through injury to finish last (52nd place) in the Women's Triathlon. An emotional, Findlay, apologized to Canadians for letting us down.

What she didn't realize is she has nothing to apologize for. She's a hero to many of us epitomizing the Olympic spirit of perseverance and class by never giving up no matter how badly she felt. She made me, for one, proud to be a Canadian with her gutsy performance. That's as important as any medal as far as I'm concerned.

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