Canadian Women Controversial Celebration

Soon after Team Canada had successfully won the gold medal on their home ice (apparently it was important to the country to do that), the Canadian women's team had chosen to enjoy the historical moment by choking down some Canadian beers (no American or Euro imports please) and smoking on long cigars (insert phallus joke here).

But while you might hear some pundits try to defend the team's behavior, I would just like to counter with the notion that those who do defend Team Canada's ladies are doing so out of 1.) loyalty to their country or 2.) ready to take a swipe at the Team's detractors casting the naysayers as a puritanical judgmental bunch.

Congratulations to the Team Canada womens Gold medalists. They worked hard for it and won when it really mattered. But the hearty party that ensued showed just about as much class as when team Canada ripped through the ranks of other less talented teams to get to the gold medal rematch. Plus, it shows a little thoughtlessness to allow a teammate who was underage at the time.

Star-Ledger photographer Andy Mills captured 18-year-old Marie-Philip Poulin, who scored both goals in the gold-medal game, drinking Molson Canadian beer. Poulin doesn't turn 19 – the legal drinking age in British Columbia – until next month. The Canadian team trains in Alberta, where the legal drinking age is 18.

With a hyper sensitive media is ready to castigate any athlete that does not behave as a role model 24/7/365, it only shows how much little progress society has made.

The IOC said it would look into the matter.

"I don't think it's a good promotion of sport values," Gilbert Felli, the IOC's executive director of the Olympics, told the Associated Press after learning about the celebration. "If they celebrate in the changing room, that's one thing, but not in public. We will investigate what happened."

The team made a public apology, but it seems a little hollow after the damage has been done. You can read the apology on the link below.

When I used to work for the womens ice hockey team at Penn State, I was a witness to a controversial moment that I care not to repeat here. I can remember, however, the stigmatic shame that was leveled on the team, logo, and schools character for several days later.

If teams like this can just shrug it off like no big deal, then perhaps deeper sanctions should be considered.

[Via: New Jersey Star Ledger]