VANCOUVER ”“ Canada’s Paralympic sledge hockey team came close on March 19, but Norway ultimately grabbed victory by scoring the winning goal with 3.6 seconds remaining. But if the Canadian team’s morale was crushed by their opponent Norway’s bronze medal, the bittersweet experience was enriched by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s personal words of post-game advice.
Like that best friend who consoles you after a bad break-up, Harper appeared in Canada’s sledge hockey dressing room to calm the storm and let the athletes know that they have a right to keep their chins up. And more importantly, Harper made the dressing room cameo to inform the Canadian team that despite their bronze medal loss, their efforts had significantly boosted awareness of sledge hockey across Canada.
“We were in there fighting back tears and Prime Minister Stephen Harper came in. (There were) a lot of higher up people from Hockey Canada — the Premier, Rick Hanson — a lot of leadership was in the room after the game,” said Canadian forward and assistant captain Greg Westlake.
Westlake, who led Canada in scoring with seven goals, had his legs amputated below the knees when he was only 18 months old — a disability that has, over the years, forced him to look at the positive side of life.
“I probably would have been crying and sobbing if it wasn’t for those guys coming in so I tried to keep my chin up and talk to them. They told us to be proud. They told us we really raised the profile of sledge hockey in Canada,” said Westlake.
Canada’s bronze medal hopes began to evaporate when their 1-0 lead was tied up after a Norway penalty shot snuck past the near perfect veteran Canuck goaltender Paul Rosen with nine minutes to go in the third period.
Looking as if the bronze medal bout was bound for an overtime frame, Norway’s Eskil Hager fluttered a shot from near the blue line overtop a flailing Rosen with an impossible 3.6 seconds remaining. The Norwegian Hagen has emerged as somewhat of a nuisance for the Canadian sledge hockey team and was the player responsible for scoring both of Norway’s goals in the team’s gold medal victory in 2002 at Salt Lake City.
Westlake, who had scored two goals in Canada’s 5-0 blowout victory over Norway last week in round-robin play, admitted that Harper’s presence was welcomed following the gut-wrenching loss in front of the 6,000 plus crowd at UBC.
Despite the disappointing conclusion, Westlake remained positive and was grateful Mr. Harper took a second to remind him that his team’s sledge hockey efforts have helped the status of the sport blossom.
“Playing in Canada is a once in life time opportunity and I had a blast. I had fun — I’m going to look back. I’m disappointed at the end result but I couldn’t be more happy with the lifestyle I lived for the past two weeks,” said Westlake.
“It was an incredible journey. Now the profile of our sport is raised and maybe in Sochi (Russia) when we do win, a million people will be watching on TV as opposed to when we won in Torino (in 2006) and nobody knew. So there are a lot of positives that come out of an event like this,” concluded Westlake.
Prior to Westlake speaking to the press, the first Canadian sledge hockey player to face the media following the bronze medal debacle was 20-year old defenceman Adam Dixon, who held back tears during his emotionally speechless attempts at making sense of the crushing loss in front of a Canadian crowd.
“It’s terribly crushing,” said a dazed Dixon, who has been playing sledge hockey since the age of eleven after having a tumour surgically removed from his tibia.
For an egoless Dixon, the worst element to the stinging defeat is letting down veteran players who may never a chance to compete for a Paralympic medal again — especially on home soil.
“For some of the guys it’s their last game played. It’s terrible that some guys put a lot of work in this year and put some other things in their life on hold, and it didn’t happen for those guys. We feel like we have the best team tournament and we weren’t in the final game and we didn’t finish today so it just — sucks,” said Dixon.
Apart from Westlake’s positive retelling of Harper’s words of wisdom, he gloomily concurred with teammate Dixon that falling short has been a scathing failure — not only because Canada will depart the Paralympics empty handed, but also because team expectations have been left unfulfilled.
“I feel like we’re not living up to the guidelines we set for ourselves and the standard that we hold ourselves to. It’s disappointing right now.”
Harper continued to support Canada’s Paralympic athletes on March 20 when he was took time to congratulate and shake hands with the Canadian wheel chair curling team following their gold medal triumph over Korea.
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photos: Gerald Deo