Canada’s Bronze Medal Synchronized Skating team
Did you know that the 2007 World Synchronized Skating Championships took place in Canada. Yep, at London’s John Labbatt’s arena from March 30th to April 1st. And did you know that Canada’s Nexxice team took the Bronze medal ? You might – because CBC TV showed the event on Saturday two weeks (short program) and three weeks (long program) after the event occurred.
Does this have the ring of the 2006 World Lacrosse Championships also from London Ontario ? Yep, the ones where Canada took the Championship away from the USA who had a hammerlock on the Lacrosse Championships going twenty years back without a loss except to Canada in 1986, the last time Canada won the gold medal. The ring is a muted “ting….” because the events and results caused barely a ripple in Canadian media.
Did you know that Lacrosse, not Ice Hockey is Canada’s National Sport? Did you know that the Synchronized Skating sold out every day including the practices while the Brier in Hamilton could barely fill Copps Coliseum even with the seating drawn down? Did you know that the skating teams at the World Championships could not believe the discerning knowledgability and warm support of the London spectators? Synchronized Skating is big stuff throughout Canada but especially Southwestern Ontario.
I ask these questions because if the sporting event is not in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary or points West – or if it is not hockey, baseball, hockey, Olympic events, hockey, football, hockey, basketball or hockey – then it gets no coverage on Global TV, no coverage on CTV, and a mixed pastiche of coverage on CBC. And then people wonder why Canada has a)an sporting inferiority complex, b) a drift towards an American Idolized culture, and c)a less-exercise-means-more-obesity crisis among the young especially.