Travelling last week through northeast Japan on another project, I was struck by just how important winter is to the Canadian brand internationally.
Almost all TVs in public places were set to the Japan Broadcast Consortium鈥檚 wall-to-wall coverage of the 2018 Winter Olympics taking place across the Sea of Japan in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Upon asking where I was from, people would invariably point to the TVs and say: 鈥淎h, sa国际传媒.鈥�
Winning a lot of medals will get you that sort of recognition. Norway, Germany and sa国际传媒 are top three in Pyeongchang.
It鈥檚 becoming a habit.
sa国际传媒 has placed in the top three of the Winter Olympics medals tables in Vancouver 2010, Sochi 2014 and Pyeongchang 2018, and is on a run of six consecutive top-five placings since Nagano in 1998, including Salt Lake City 2002 and Turin 2006.
Canadians have embraced being a nation defined by winter 鈥� what else can they do but acknowledge it and go with it 鈥� and these Games every four years are their greatest moment to shine on the world sporting stage because of the natural advantages winter provides them.
The Aussies, who seem to take over Whistler in winter, would love to have places like that at home to express their bursting sporting impulses in all four seasons.
But they don鈥檛. sa国际传媒 has plenty of such places across the country, from Big White in Kelowna to the myriad curling rinks of Nova Scotia.
sa国际传媒 is just part of the howling pack in the much more competitive Summer Olympics. Great moments have been provided over the years by the likes of the Elk Lake-based Canadian rowers, Island athletes such as Simon Whitfield and Ryan Cochrane. There鈥檚 been a surprisingly bright history, with one dark cloud, in the men鈥檚 100聽metres. But finishing top three in the overall medals table is unlikely to be in the cards for sa国际传媒 in the Summer Games.
The rest of the world must shudder knowing sa国际传媒鈥檚 almost complete dominance, when even the mild-weathered Vancouver Island, normally shut out from all this winter sporting revelry, is joining in the parade.
Victoria might be the only city in sa国际传媒 where you have to specify 鈥渋ce hockey鈥� when talking about a sport also played on turf. And Victoria is likely the only city in sa国际传媒 where an emergency-preparedness workshop is cancelled because of snow, as it was last week.
The Island doesn鈥檛 get much in the way of snowy Canadian winter weather 鈥� with the exception of Mount Washington.
It was on those slopes that Cassie Sharpe of Comox spent countless hours. She won a gold medal in Pyeongchang in the women鈥檚 ski halfpipe.
Could this be part of a trend for the Island鈥檚 lone ski hill? It looks to be. It makes sense 鈥� it was only a matter of time before an Island generation that grew up skiing and boarding on Mount Washington would begin to start expressing itself on the world stage.
The Island will likely always be better known for producing Summer Olympians.
But Sharpe and two-time Olympic veteran slopestyle boarder Spencer O鈥橞rien of Courtenay, the 2013 world champion, were among a quartet of Mount Washington-produced Winter Olympians in Pyeongchang. All four attributed their Olympic journey to growing up in the vicinity of the hill.
Although disappointed in her showings of 22nd place in slopestyle and ninth in big air, the 30-year-old O鈥橞rien can go out knowing she was a trailblazer not only for Sharpe and the rest of the Island group, but also for her sport. Slopestyle made its debut at Sochi 2014 and women鈥檚 big air at Pyeongchang this year.
鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty disappointing I聽couldn鈥檛 put out my best, but that鈥檚 kind of what I had [in Pyeongchang], and that鈥檚 how it goes,鈥� O鈥橞rien said.
鈥淎s athletes, we always want to do our best and when you don鈥檛 do your best, you don鈥檛 feel proud of it. But I was happy to have made the finals and do a few jumps. I鈥檓 just really excited about the level of riding.
鈥淚鈥檝e had a really long career and I feel really lucky to have been able to compete competitively for this long and it feels really good to have seen the inclusion of both slopestyle and big air into the Olympics. I鈥檓 just so proud of these women and where we鈥檝e taken it.鈥�
In a notable Olympic debut, 22-year-old Teal Harle of Campbell River placed fifth at Pyeongchang in men鈥檚 ski slopestyle. sa国际传媒 took three of the top six positions, with Alex Beaulieu-Marchand of Quebec the bronze medallist and Evan McEachran from Oakville, Ont., in sixth.
鈥淸It] was unreal. I鈥檝e definitely surpassed every expectation I had for the Games,鈥� said Harle, who was cheered on across the Pacific by a watching party in Campbell River.
鈥淕oing into it, my goal was just to land a run in qualifications and I made it to finals, so that was insane. I couldn鈥檛 be happier with how [it] went.鈥�
Carle Brenneman, 28, of Comox, placed 14th in women鈥檚 snowboard cross in her Olympic debut.
Canadian sports fans should enjoy sa国际传媒鈥檚 success in Pyeongchang. They won鈥檛 get to experience it this summer in soccer during the 2018 World Cup in Russia 鈥� sa国际传媒 hasn鈥檛 qualified since 1986, when Island players Ian Bridge, George Pakos and Jamie Lowery performed on the pitch and Duran Duran and Flock of Seagulls were on the radio.
Even the Langford-based Canadian men鈥檚 rugby team is on the brink of not qualifying, for the first time, for the World Cup in Japan in 2019.
sa国际传媒 is usually top three as well in the Commonwealth and Pan American Games, but those events, by design, don鈥檛 involve the entire world.
Neither do the Winter Olympics, to be honest. In fact, they are so narrowly focused in some events that you can feel the disappointment across sa国际传媒 when gold is not won in curling or hockey.
The women鈥檚 hockey loss so disappointed Canadian player Jocelyne Larocque that she immediately took off her silver medal. She later apologized for her action.
But it pointed out something obvious: Who takes curling or women鈥檚 hockey as seriously as sa国际传媒? The Japanese seemed bemused every time curling came on the screen.
Despite the Winter Games鈥� limited appeal in large swaths of the world, including Africa, the Middle East, South America, India, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean and Oceania, these are still the Olympics. So revel in the moment of being a big-time player, sa国际传媒.
Not that the Olympic movement isn鈥檛 without its issues. City after city has decided in referendums not to bid on hosting the Games, leaving the reeling International Olympic Committee to say it鈥檚 OK to use existing facilities to cut costs and go back to previous hosts such as Tokyo, London, Paris, Los Angeles and Beijing 鈥� and maybe Calgary?
Canadians have funded three Olympics 鈥� the 1976 Montreal Summer Games, and the 1988 Calgary and 2010 Vancouver Winter Games 鈥� and could be asked again. Calgary, a city that has never shied from boosterism, is seriously thinking about bidding for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Considering the limited pool of cities showing a willingness to take on these massive projects, Calgary has a good chance of winning. Don鈥檛 forget, the IOC did the only logical thing last year by locking in its only two credible Summer Games bidders by awarding the 2024 and 2028 events to Paris and Los Angeles, respectively, at the same time.
These, however, are never just civic and provincial projects. All Canadians will pay for a potential Calgary 2026 Winter Games.
That leaves the question: Will those Victorians who were most vociferous in their opposition last year to the sa国际传媒 capital hosting another Commonwealth Games in 2022, be equally loud against a Calgary 2026 bid?
The ills of the Olympics have been well documented, from the drug-stained nation known in Pyeongchang by the cumbersome moniker Olympic Athletes from Russia, to the images of unused and decaying former Games facilities from Athens to Rio de Janeiro. Why is Sochi, which is the size of Greater Victoria, saddled with three NHL-sized arenas after its overblown $51-billion 2014 Winter Olympics?
And a doping scandal in curling? Really, Russia?
Yet we can鈥檛 seem to turn away. CBC reported that 83 per cent of Canadians viewed at least a portion of the Pyeongchang Games.
There is a reason we continue watching.
It鈥檚 the same reason there is an expectant hush that falls over the crowd at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre every time Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir 鈥� who closed out their splendid competitive ice-dance careers with another gold medal in Pyeongchang 鈥� skate annually in Stars on Ice.
Despite the many problems that have beset the Olympics, it comes down to the athletes.
We admire the pluck of someone such as Pyeongchang bronze-medallist figure-skater Kaetlyn Osmond, who rose to the Olympic podium this week from her sixth place at the 2011 Canadian junior championships at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
It鈥檚 why we give a hall pass to the Olympics, and all their associated ills. They still mean a lot to the athletes. And we seem to like the athletes. This is their summit, and fans and media tend to respect that.
The embers of the Olympic flame dim today on Pyeongchang 2018, and sa国际传媒鈥檚 stellar showing again in the Games of winter.
It鈥檚 the Summer Games that are up next at Tokyo in 2020, a far greater challenge. The Island has had a good showing historically because of its sporting culture and mild weather and seems to cultivate rowers, triathletes, cyclists, and rugby and field-hockey players like a Central Saanich daffodil field in spring.
Plans are already under way with rugby sevens and wall-climbing 鈥� sports closely associated with the Island 鈥� to hold their pre-Games training camps in Victoria鈥檚 sister city of Morioka before taking the bullet train to Tokyo.
It鈥檚 doubtful every Japanese taxpayer welcomes the big show rolling its way again for the fourth time following the 1964 Tokyo Summer Games and 1972 Sapporo and 1998 Nagano Winter Games.
But the guess is, once it starts, they, along with the rest of the world, won鈥檛 be able to look away.