Category — Canada

Here’s Carol Huynh’s gold medal bout for you “Carol-crazy” Canadians. The quality of the video leaves something to be desired but it’s the only one currently available at Youtube. I’m sure some good soul will upload a better video later. For the time being, enjoy this video and send a thank you message to Carol.

Related:
Carol Huynh: Finally, A Gold for Canada

Our Canadian friends who’ve been gnashing their teeth because they’ve been medal-less for days will, I think, gnash their teeth no more. Canada now has three medals one of which is a gold medal courtesy of wrestler Carol Huynh who’s being carried above by her coach and some other guy
Ah, the sweet tears of victory. Congratulations to you, Carol.

Related:
Video: Carol Huynh’s Gold Medal Bout

Photo sources: beijing2008 and CBC Olympics

Here’s the delegation from Canada.

I must say that their Olympic uniform is an improvement from the much criticized outfits they released a few months ago.

Related:
Canada’s Olympic Pajamas, Part II
Canada’s Pajama Looking Olympic Outfit

Photo credit: sina.com

They’re not really fighting but they’re also kind of fighting. Contradictory, eh? If you remember our earlier post, we reported that Elvis Stojko, a two-time figure skating Olympic gold medalist, urged Canadian athletes to boycott the Beijing Olympic Games in the name of human rights.

Adam Van Koeverden, world and Olympic kayak champion, is having none of it: “I respect Stojko and his opinion but I think he would have moderated his comments if he was headed to the Olympics to win a gold medal.” [cbcsports.ca]

Clearly, Adam is against an Olympic boycott as he wrote the following in his blog:

To suggest that participation in the Beijing Olympics is somehow ignorant of human rights violations or the situation in Tibet is ridiculous to me. I’m not pledging my support or choosing sides by going to China to compete, if anything I think a high profile event of this magnitude will draw attention to, and potentially lead to solutions to the problems that exist. The exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, the Dalai Lama doesn’t support an Olympic Boycott, citing that the people of China aren’t to blame for the situation; I don’t think athletes from around the world should be either.

Unless Elvis comes up with a strong comeback — like saying something like “Adam dude, figure skating is much more popular than kayaking, so shut up will ya” — we are putting the score at Adam: 1 vs. Elvis: 0.

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You will become our idol if you will also speak out for aboriginal rights before Vancouver’s 2010 Winter Games in 2010? Maybe you should also ask athletes to think about Canada’s treatment of Native Canadians before they participate in the Vancouver Games.

If you will say something like that, we will be happy to include you in our honor list of people (Archbishop Desmond Tutu, etc) and institutions (Amnesty International, etc) who have an admirable human rights record.

If you will not say anything in 2010, we will include you in our list of poseurs who are bashing China’s human rights record but who were silent about the human rights violations committed by former Olympic host countries. You will be in good company. Our list currently includes Hillary Clinton (who will say anything to get elected), Angela Merkel, and other wannabe human rights advocates whose advocacies are cheapened by their selectiveness.

Will you rise up to the challenge, Elvis?

*****

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