Gold for Canada!

Every good story has a villain, and yesterday, we met the guy everyone loves to hate.

It was the men's freestyle moguls, and Dale Begg-Smith was the favourite to win. I had never heard of this poor vilified athlete, but a few comments on the newscast led me to do a little internet research.

Well!

It seems that this Canadian boy got miffed with the ski program at home and took off for Australia at age 16. The issue? He wanted to spend more time working on his internet business.

Those Australians. (Haven't I said that before?)

As I read more, I discovered nasty little rumours about malware and spyware. And then, I saw clips of a chilly young Dale, who refuses Canadian interviews. NBC has dubbed him "The most mysterious man of the Winter Olympics. Hmmmm...

Anyway, after a very exciting event, Dale came in second to a young skier from Quebec, Alexandre Bilodeau. The crowd erupted! This was the first Canadian Olympic gold ever on home soil!

(Alex is in the middle, with Dale on the left and the

American bronze winner on the right)

We were charmed by Alex's humble attitude and the way he gave credit for his success to his brother, his biggest supporter, who is disabled with cerebral palsy. What a guy!

I don't know much about the technicalities of freestyle moguls, but I was pretty surprised when I saw in the news today that the Australian coach was claiming Bilodeau shouldn't have won. He's just not good enough to have the gold. He says...

Those Australians!
Such excitement! Such intrigue!

This is our Olympic bulletin board at school. We are tracking the medals of a few countries that we highlighted before the games began. And Canada, of course!