It was the best of times, and, if you believed some people, it was the worst of times. 

      Understand something before you go any further. The media in general loves to build up sports heroes. But it loves even more to bring them down. It's the nature of the beast, I suppose. 

      We can speak of the recent savaging of golf's Tiger Woods, not for anything he did on the golf course, but more for admitted indiscretions off the course, none of which are the business of anybody outside of Tiger Woods' wife and family. But the feeding frenzy was indicative of the media's desire to find something wrong with Tiger Woods, and milk it until it's dry. I am safe in saying this cow may never dry up for the American tabloid media. Who cares? 

      Closer to home, we have the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. They will be wrapping up this weekend, but in the eyes of too many in the Canadian media and too many Canadians in general, they have been a failure. 

      For five years prior to the Olympics in Vancouver, well over $100-million was pumped into getting our athletes and teams as ready as they could be the first Winter Olympics held on Canadian soil since the 1988 Calgary Olympics. Everything that could possibly be done to get them ready was being done in the years before the event even happened. 

      And Canadians got excited. And the Canadian Olympic Committee got delirious, to the point where somebody up high woke up one morning and declared, "I've got it! I've got the slogan for Canada in this year's Olympics!" 

      Own The Podium suddenly appeared everywhere. It became the rallying cry for everybody connected with the Olympic team, whether they were participating, coaching, managing, or just plain cheering. Own The Podium. And COC committee members weren't the least bit hesitant in explaining that when the Olympics ended, Canada would have won the most medals of any country competing. 

      Oh, really. 

      The day will likely never come when Canada dominates the medal podium. But what's wrong with reaching, what's wrong with dreaming? What's wrong with the most gold medals ever won by Canada in a Winter Olympics? What's wrong with the thrills and chills our Canadian kids have provided us day after day, night after night, whether they be in medal finishing performances, or just inspiring give-it-all performances that raised the hairs on the back of your neck and brought you screaming out of your easy chair. 

      Why would Canada ever be considered a favourite to win the most medals in the world? Heck, China has a population of over 1-billion to choose from. The United States has over 310-million people to choose from, 10 times the population of Canada. 

      There is not a single thing that Canadians should not feel proud about when it comes to this year's Olympic performances. Of course, there were disappointments, where favourites to win medals didn't. And, there were moments when Canadian athletes not expected to win medals suddenly found themselves up on the podiums. That's sports. That's the power and the glory of sports. 

      The one thing our Canadian athletes didn't do once, at least that I saw, was quit, throw in the towel, bawl that they just couldn't compete at this level. I will guarantee you that every Canadian athlete who started an event went into it firm in the belief that they could, and would win. 

      You could see it in the electrifying intensity etched across their shiny young faces, in the fire in their eyes, in the all-out effort they threw at the rest of the Olympic field. 

      You have to remember something. There is not a whole lot of difference in the quality of athletes from one country to the next. In most cases, it's measured in decimal points, in the blink of an eye, the flash of a hockey stick, the turn around a corner. One tiny mistake, that's usually the difference. And there's always going to be mistakes in events as high-powered and demanding as the Olympics. There's always going to be flawlessness too. 

      That's what sports is all about. And, the Olympics bring that competition of athletes into an even more focused moment in time. Winning or losing an event doesn't mean you are the best or worst athlete in the sport. It means only that on a given day at a given time, you have that one opportunity to be flawless. 

      And, I saw so many flawless moments among Canadian athletes that it was incredible. 

      Never mind dismissing failed moments as the result of too much pressure being put on our athletes by unrealistic expectations, by the Own The Podium slogan. Any athlete who makes it to the Olympics is an elite athlete. They live for moments like this. It is why they train, sacrifice, dedicate themselves beyond imagination. They WANT that Olympic moment. They want the pressure. They want the chance. 

      Canada did itself proud in Vancouver. They gave the country thrills and chills, and medals too. And, they showed the world that Canada can compete at any level with anybody. 

      Mind you, I think the world already knew that. I'm not so sure Canadians knew it. Now, they do.