VANCOUVER — For once, it’s impossible to measure the real triumph of the Olympics in gold, silver and bronze.
Team USA took home a record haul of 37 medals in a performance that lifted the spirits of recession- weary Americans unsure of exactly what we do right these days, while “O Canada” played on a nearly continuous loop, as athletes from the host nation finished atop the podium 14 times.
The medal count, however, misses the exclamation point on the 21st Winter Games.
It seems like forever the United States and Canada have been neighbors with little in common except a gazillion trees forming the fence at our border. We spoke football. They talked curling.
But I swear there was an anxious moment Sunday, during one of the greatest hockey games ever played, when hearts in both countries beat as one, at about 125 nervous thumps per minute.
“Biggest game I’ve ever played? Absolutely,” said Colorado Avalanche star Paul Stastny, a member of a legendary hockey family. “I don’t think my old man or uncles ever made it to the medal round of the Olympics, so that’s one thing I have on them.”
In the end, this proved to be the Winter Games when little brother grew up. Even better, the maturation occurred on both sides on the border.
Have these North American countries ever shared so much happy passion for anything? Nope.
“Canadians and Americans alike cheering not only us on and the Canadians on, but the entire world. You don’t get that from every Olympics,” said alpine skier Lindsey Vonn, who won the downhill.
After the Canadians needed overtime and a jaw-dropping winning goal by Sidney Crosby to edge the USA 3-2, our neighbors to the north were proudly wearing T-shirts that boasted: “Hockey is Canada’s game.”
But we both know that’s no longer the truth.
“Maybe Canada invented the game, but to say it’s their game is a little arrogant,” U.S. defenseman Brooks Orpik said. Teammate Ryan Kesler was more direct: “We proved it’s not just Canada’s game.”
What happened to the country of Canada during these Winter Games transcended sports.
Although Georgian athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili died on the sliding track before the Games officially began and the extreme-sports venue of Cypress Mountain showed how ugly mud season can be, the Olympics gave birth to a new, boisterous patriotism in traditionally shy and polite Canada.
Here’s what was so cool about this coming-out party: Canadians decided they weren’t going to sit quietly in the back seat and let Americans drive the agenda in North America anymore.
“This is a tipping point in Canadian history. It’s unlikely we could be confronted with anything in this community ever again that we wouldn’t have the self-confidence to overcome,” said John Furlong, chief executive of Vancouver’s Olympic organizing committee.
Coming-of-age stories can be must-see TV, as the huge ratings from Vancouver to Denver demonstrated. Maybe we fall hopelessly in love with Olympic drama because it’s nearly impossible to stay cynical when there’s a grown man crying with a medal around his neck.
In the end, even at an international sports summit where there are skaters, snowboarders and biathletes from 82 nations, it’s the small, personal snapshots that frame the lasting memories.
Take this slice of truth told by bobsledder Steve Mesler, who recalled huddling with his U.S. teammates, all four of them knowing they needed to nail one final run to be No. 1.
Instead of trying to think of a Knute Rockne speech, the four U.S. athletes quietly stood in a parking lot outside the track, inhaling deeply and watching their breath disappear in the sky. “It’s a moment,” said Mesler, “that I kind of stopped for half a second and took it in.” Four guys. All sharing the instant when they will never feel more alive. By the way: They won gold.
What’s unforgettable is always personal. As exploding fireworks reflected in the skyscraper glass of North America’s most stunning city every night at 10:45, the more indelible image for me from the vantage of my tiny hotel room was a strand of red lights hanging from the balcony on an apartment just down the street.
For the final 16 nights of the Winter Games, a Vancouver resident spelled out a touching tribute to a fallen Olympic competitor in red glowing all-capital letters: “NODAR.”
If you allow, there is something in the Olympic spirit that goes beyond victory and defeat, something enduring, something capable of touching every heart.
Mark Kiszla: 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com
