Olympic Update

Dominique Maltais has just picked up a bronze medal in Women’s Snowboard Cross.  We now have a total of 9.

There is one other bit of news involving Canada that kind of disturbs me.  It involves a protest made by the Canadian Short-track Association that would give us an extra bronze medal.  

In the final of the Women’s 500m event, the Bulgarian skater crossed the line 2nd, but with her skate blade in the air (an illegal action).  The winner of the B-final was a Canadian.  As a result, she gets a 4th place finish.  So what the Canadians have done is protested to the International Federation that the Bulgarian should be disqualified, which would move the Canadian into 3rd (and Anouk Leblanc-Boucher into second).

One thing about the Bulgarian’s finish is that she was basically falling over and couldn’t help but raise her skate blade.  

This seems like a dirty protest to me.  Whether or not it will actually go through is still up in the air, but whatever happened to sportsmanship?  The Bulgarian skater gained no advantage by doing what she did and I’m convinced it was a result of protecting her own safety.  And apparently the Canadians have a short memory.  I seem to recall a certain Norwegian coach helping out our cross-country ski team when he was not obliged to do so.