You’d think Canada’s Jocelyne Larocque threw her silver medal in the crowd or something.
Larocque, upset at losing to the Americans in women’s hockey, simply removed the medal from around her neck.
That’s it.
But the reaction from Canadians is coming fast and with anger and disappointment. Some going as far to say she shouldn’t represent Canada ever again with that attitude.
Larocque showed one thing: how disappointing it is to train for four years to lose the only game that really matters in a four year cycle. The gold medal game for Canada and U.S. at the Olympics is their Stanley Cup. And all that silver medal shows Canada is they failed to achieve their singular goal.
There is a commercial with Natalie Spooner indicating just that. The Olympics is 1,400 days away. That’s how they think. Getting to the gold medal game isn’t a huge accomplishment. The competition isn’t there to really challenge the Canadians or Americans just yet.
Silver is nearly a given.
In fact, wearing the Canadian sweater and making the team is a bigger accomplishment for Larocque than getting to the gold medal game.
So how about we give her a break, for wanting to remove a medal that in her mind represents failure more than anything else.