Triumph overcomes tragedy

By Rick Broadbent

Few people remember Jorg Oberhammer these days. The physician for the Austria team was preparing for the start of the giant slalom when he collided with a recreational skier and was thrown under a snow-grooming machine. He was crushed to death beneath a chairlift carrying the watching Pirmin Zurbriggen and Martin Hangl.
The former went on to take the bronze medal, but the latter collapsed under the emotion of what he had witnessed and withdrew, thus summing up the dilemma of what to do when human tragedy treads on the toes of sporting drama.

The flame goes out of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver

That was 1988, the previous time that the Olympics visited Canada. Fast forward to today and one wonders whether, for all the grief in Georgia and compassion in Canada, any neutral will remember Nodar Kumaritashvili in a few years’ time. The death of the luger hours before the opening of the Vancouver Games might have been expected to cast a depression over all that followed, but instead we have seen the truth of the oft-maligned Bill Shankly aphorism that sport really can seem important than life and death.
That was never more evident than in Canada’s manic 3-2 overtime victory over the United States in the men’s ice hockey final last night. The host nation were 24 seconds from victory against a team who had pulled their goaltender, when Zach Parise made it 2-2. Enter Sidney Crosby, the pin-up boy of Canadian ice hockey, who had struggled to live up to his pre-Games billing, to score a goal that sent Canada into delirium.
It has often felt that the Olympics have been playing second fiddle to an ice hockey competition here. This is Canada’s sport. “Destiny on ice,” as the placards put it.
The win means Canada have 14 gold medals, more than any nation has managed at a Winter Games. The Canadian public has not so much embraced the Olympic circus as ravaged it behind the podium, and yes, the inflated medal target notwithstanding, Canada has owned that bloody thing.
They did not manage this many golds in ten Games from 1960 and indeed, in 1988, they were as bad as Britain and had none.
Many would have traded all the others for a repeat of the 2002 hockey triumph over the same opposition. Canada were again the better team on this occasion but had lost to the guts and goaltending of the US in the preliminaries. The Americans were belligerent again but when Jonathan Toews and Corey Perry put Canada clear, it looked straightforward until Ryan Kesler’s deflection crept in. Cue Bedlam.
Parise created parity, Crosby made history.
In the hysteria it felt like official confirmation that the Olympics have been a huge success. The problems, and they have existed, despite certain claims, were forgotten. All that was left was sport. In years to come people will remember Alex Bilodeau winning Canada’s first Olympic gold at home rather than the ripping up of 28,000 tickets because of safety fears on Cypress Mountain. They will recall the bravery of Joannie Rochette’s bronze medal days after her mother’s death and not the Olympic flame being locked away behind gates. Most of all, they will talk about the hockey.
When the dust settles on both the ice hockey and Vancouver, many questions will remain unanswered about Kumaritashvili’s accident.
However, ultimately, these have been great Games where sport has ridden roughshod over the problems. They started with a human tragedy and ended in sporting catharsis. There is talk of Kumaritashvili’s family suing the IOC, but as the hockey fans poured on to the city streets last night, the truth was that not even death has been able to get in the way of Canada’s glory. – [London Times]