We’re golden! And silvery. And a little bronzy.

The Olympics has wrapped up. We all feel proudly Canadian, don’t we?

I will be the first to admit I don’t look at the calendar and count down the days until the Games begins. As such, I don’t know the broadcast schedule and when our athletes are competing for medals.

But there are times when I can be a bandwagon jumper. The hype works on me.

Rarely am I still awake after 11 p.m. But when there was such a hullabaloo about the women’s gold-medal hockey game, I couldn’t help but set a reminder on my phone to be at the TV for 10:10 p.m. that night. And yes, I went to bed at 2:30 a.m. once the shootout and medal ceremony were over. (Even people who know me questioned that I really stayed up late to catch the action. My dogs were even looking at me like, “Soooo… are we going upstairs to bed soon?”)

While I can’t name any of the players on the team or even if any are from Manitoba, I did, for a few hours, become one of their biggest fans.

It took me back to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics when I was there broadcasting my radio shows. We had a few cameras throughout the city — in electronics stores, outdoors on the big public screens — wherever people were watching the game, and there was a sense of community as Team Canada went for hockey gold. You probably remember: they won.

And as the final seconds ticked away eight years ago, the crowds flooded into the streets. An estimated 200,000 people converged downtown, waving flags, spontaneously singing O Canada (the previous version, not the new supposedly less-offensive one) every five minutes. In fact, I recall at 4 a.m. still hearing people out on the street as I tried to sleep in my hotel room.

This time I was at home by myself in a darkened room with the glow of a TV. Last time I was instant friends with whoever crossed my path on the West Coast.

We are a united country. Win or lose, an event like the Olympics reminds us that we live in a pretty sweet place with some pretty talented people.

Go Canada Go!

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