It was the biggest of stages, with the eyes of the world drawn upon Vancouver – and Sudburians were front and centre. For starters, local athletes came through with flying colours.
First was the inspiring performances of Nordic skier Devon Kershaw, helping to lead the Canadian men’s team to its greatest Olympic performance ever. A Dowling native who fine-tuned his craft initially on the scenic courses of Windy Lake, Kershaw teamed with partner Alex Harvey for a fourth-place finish in team sprint race.
And then came the inspirational effort that was the 50-kilometer classic — an event that absolutely drains unbelievably fit athletes over a two-hour marathon, and a race in which the top five finishers were separated by an amazing 1.6 seconds. Kershaw was less than a second shy of claiming bronze.
I had been assigned as official scorekeeper of a match that will easily live on for years to come.
And then there were the ladies, as Tessa Bonhomme and Rebecca Johnston made it an even troika of Olympic athletes who were born and raised in Sudbury, eventually reaching the pinnacle of their sport.
Cruising through preliminary round action, the pair proved an integral part of Team Canada’s success, with both entrusted to help preserve a 2-0 lead over the United States in the dying minutes of the gold-medal encounter. Better still, neither Bonhomme nor Johnston have yet to celebrate their 25th birthday, leaving room for plenty of future accomplishments and accolades still to come their way.
And then there were those who rose to the top of their craft, slightly on the sidelines of the field of play.
As an entire nation enjoyed the incredible spectacle that was the men’s gold-medal affair, both Todd Guthrie and myself were blessed with the opportunity of a lifetime — working the game as off-ice officials.
Sitting at ice level in the penalty box, directly in line with the centre red line, I had been assigned as official scorekeeper of a match that will easily live on for years to come. Two seats to my right, Todd calmly ran a secondary game clock, his appointment a clear indication of the reputation he developed with games officials over the course of just a few short weeks.
Considering that we both ventured to Vancouver with mere hopes of perhaps working one medal game between the men’s and women’s competitions, the fact that we were both front and centre on the women’s final Thursday and the men’s Sunday speaks volumes.
Three scorekeepers and four timekeepers, some of whom regularly work NHL games, were shut out from the gold and bronze encounters.
Looking back, the past two weeks still seem like quite a blur. There were definite moments — during the three hours that the American and Canadian men’s Olympic hockey representatives enthralled millions around the world (we’re told that some 50 million viewers tuned in for the game worldwide) — when we both took time to try to take it all in.
The steady roar of the crowd as the teams took to the ice, the reaction as Brendan Morrow and Corey Perry staked Canada to a 2-0 lead, the letdown that comes with initially falling some 24 seconds short of reaching their goal and the incredible exhilaration that accompanied “The Goal” – all part and parcel of an afternoon neither of us will ever forget.
The realization of the exact scope of what Todd and I were part of will gradually sink in over time, much in the same manner that phenomenal athletic performances are cherished years down the road by the athletes who grace our TV screens. For now, we try and grasp the small parts we played in a game that is already being described as one for the ages. The post-game celebration, that would see hundreds of thousands pour into the streets of downtown Vancouver for impromptu renditions of the National Anthem at almost every street corner, provided a hint of the importance of this gold-medal win to many Canadians.
It was a fitting end to the Games, one that defies the imagination of the most gifted of Hollywood script writers. And from a Sudbury perspective, it could not have been much better.
Randy Pascal is the voice of Eastlink Sports and the founder of SudburySports.com.
