THE CONSENSUS, after a sobering and disappointing Olympic Games in Athens, was that Canadian sport is broken. The consensus, typically, was misleading and incorrect.
The real truth may be that Canadian sport has never been healthier or more productive -- just not Olympic sport in this country.
The hand-wringing and analysis and plea for funding that juxtaposes each and every Olympic Games would be better directed to comprehend what it is we do in Canada, and what it is we do well.
We are a team sport nation, a pro sport nation, that's what we watch, where we play, who we support, what we care most about. We are not a country of swimmers and sprinters. When a Donovan Bailey comes along, it isn't the great foresight of Canadian sporting philosophy that fosters his growth. It is more fluke than plan. It is one incredibly unique specimen developing against conceivable odds.
That will happen. It just won't happen very often.
LIKE CLIMBING EVEREST
But years ago, when a lot of us were growing up, and a Reggie Cleveland made it to the big leagues from Saskatchewan or a Brian Heaney (an American) went from Acadia University for one NBA season with the Baltimore Bullets, it seemed like they had scaled the heights of Everest. We followed every pitch and every free throw and every week checked the small print to look for George Knudson's name in the golf results in the back pages of the newspaper.
Fast forward to today and Canada's sporting landscape has expanded wondrously. The best rookie in the National League, Jason Bay of the Pittsburgh Penguins, a Canadian. The best power hitting rookie in the American League, Justin Morneau of the Minnesota Twins, a Canadian. The reigning National League Cy Young Award winner, Eric Gagne of the Los Angeles Dodgers, a Canadian. The minor league pitcher of the year, Jeff Francis of the Colorado Rockies, a Canadian.
There are, September call-ups aside, 17 Canadian players in Major League Baseball. The brief Canadian Baseball League may have folded but somewhere Fergie Jenkins has to be smiling.
It has never been like this before.
We're not talking about last guy on the roster, kind of Rob Butler Canadian player. Larry Walker is winding down a superb career; Rich Harden is developing into a quality starting pitcher; Paul Quantrill may be the best set-up man in baseball; Corey Koskie has 23 home runs in an injury-plagued season.
Once, you followed the one or two Canadians because of obligation. You checked Terry Puhl's batting average regularly. Now, it's not quite so easy or simple. Now, you don't know where to look to keep up
And time was, when a John Priestner had a cup of coffee in the NFL or even a Reuben Mayes shocked the league with his quick rise and decline, you could count the Canadians on rosters with a finger or three. Sometimes a kicker. Sometimes an offensive lineman. Rarely a skill guy.
That's changed also -- as has the entire football playing landscape in this land.
There is a quarterback from outside Ottawa in the NFL, a running back from Toronto, a wide receiver from Vancouver, a rookie defensive lineman from the University of Manitoba of all places. The whole country covered.
This season began with 13 Canadian players on NFL rosters: That number is growing annually, not the opposite.
NBA ALL-STARS
And remarkable also is the height with which two Canadians have ascended in the National Basketball Association.
There have only been 13 Canadian players -- 14 if you count Rick Fox -- in the history of the NBA, but Steve Nash and Jamaal Magloire aren't just footnotes: Both have played in all-star games. They have gone places no others from this country have gone before in their most international sport.
Even in the soccer world, where if the many misguided branches of Canadian soccer could ever figure out development considering the staggering participation numbers they may actually be on to something, there is still Owen Hargreaves starring internationally and Tomasz Radzinski, the most underwritten local athlete in history.
Canadians leaving an imprint in sport are all over the world.
The way Mike Weir did at the Masters. The way he and Lorie Kane and Daniel Nestor and others do every week on their respective tours.
There is no reason to apologize for preferring professional sport to amateur or Olympic sport. There is no reason to say we are a hockey nation and nothing else. There is no reason to demean the quality of athlete this country now produces regularly.
Canadian athletes are competing in more places, at higher levels, than ever before.
The fact we can't win at synchronized swimming any more shouldn't really matter. The best athletes are finding their sports and a way to make a living doing them. And there's nothing wrong with that.
