Simon Lewis, Vancouver
THERE’S something that has been stirring in the Canadian psyche and these Winter Olympics in Vancouver have been teasing it out of the normally mild-mannered Canucks.
Patriotism, often considered the preserve of those vulgar neighbours to the south of the 49th Parallel, has broken out in abundance on the streets of this city and atop Whistler Mountain as the long-awaited home golds at a Canadian Olympics have finally been delivered at the third attempt following wipeouts at the Montreal Summer Games in 1976 and the Winter Games at Calgary 12 years later.
And nowhere is the feeling of national pride more keenly felt than the once genteel surroundings of the curling rinks at the Vancouver Olympic Centre.
Whenever the Canadians are in action, the atmosphere generated by the 5,600-capacity crowd is raucous and enthusiastic with much stamping of feet, lots of chanting, the odd cow bell, lots of Mexican waves and plenty of noise.
And as both men’s and women’s teams have progressed, unbeaten so far, through the nine-game round-robin stage and the chants of “Go Canada Go” have morphed into “Gold Canada Gold”.
The crescendo reached its peak on Saturday night as the Canadian men, skipped by Kevin Martin, came face to face with their nemesis, David Murdoch's Britain.
Competing as Scotland, where the sport of curling was born, Murdoch's quartet had beaten Canada in their last four meetings, including the 2009 world championship final on Canadian soil at Moncton, New Brunswick.
That hurt and much of the pre-Olympic rhetoric surrounded a Canadian mission to avenge the 'Moncton Massacre'.
At 6-5 down in the 10th and final end of their round-robin match, Martin and his Canadians needed something big to prevent a fifth straight loss to the Scots and they got it from their supporters, who with uncharacteristic gusto performed an impromptu rendition of their national anthem.
As the strains of 'O Canada' echoed around the Olympic Centre, both teams stopped what they were doing momentarily to take it all in. It clearly had an impact as Martin sent down the final stone to score two points and deliver a 7-6 victory against his old foe Murdoch.
“Wasn't that something?” said Martin afterwards. “We just let it happen and it was in tune and 5,000 strong singing. It's something you remember for the rest of your life.”
Murdoch, too, was impressed, despite the defeat but not all Canada's opponents are enjoying the atmosphere.
Used to playing their stones in relative quiet, some believe the Canadian wall of noise is akin to booing at a junior infants’ Nativity play.
The German women's skip Andrea Schoepp called the din “unfair” and the Danish fourth, the curler who sends down their team's final stone in each end, was reduced to tears when she played against the Canadian women.
“I couldn't control my weight on that last one in the 10th,” sobbed Madeleine Dupont. “When there are 6,000 people yelling, it's pretty hard. It's a little unfair but I'm sure it's not mean or anything.”
The World Curling Federation are not so sure, however, with its president Les Harrison on Saturday telling the Vancouver Sun that the crowd noise was becoming a problem.
“Yes, it’s a concern, but it's a hard thing to control,” Harrison said. “We can try to educate them through the in-house (video) system and maybe we can prepare handouts but there are a lot of uneducated fans here taking in curling.”
Good luck with that, Les. Heat and ice obviously do go together in Canada.
