Icing on the Cake

The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada just finished today. I have to say I throughly enjoyed the two week affair. There were highs such as Canada's record setting 14 gold medals (a Winter games record) and lows such as the tragic death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili.

There were also tales of unimaginable courage from Slovenian cross-country skier Petra Majdic who skied to a bronze medal in the women's sprint classic despite breaking five ribs and suffering a collapsed lung in a warm-up accident; and Canadian women's figure skater Joannie Rochette who went on to win a bronze medal after losing her mother to a heart attack just days before she was to compete. They embody the true strength and spirit of these world class athletes.

If you were a Canadian hockey fan the games ended truly on the highest of high notes. With the weight of a nation resting on it's rugged shoulders the men's hockey team took to the ice and won gold in a nail biter over the young, aggressive Americans, 3-2 in overtime. Led by the stellar net minding of goaltender Ryan Miller the U.S team almost pulled off the upset of decade. After going down 2-0 the Americans tied the game in the dying seconds of the third period. If not for the heroics of Sid, the Kid, Crosby, Canadians could have ended up crying in their beer instead of celebrating in the streets. It definitely was the icing on the cake to these amazing games that all Canadians had been yearning for.

A salute to all the athletes for a wonderful Winter Olympics. See you in Sochi, Russia in 2014!

To see a slideshow of all my photos on Flickr.com click here. Click on the photo for the captions.