Last Call

Hats off to our northern neighbors for the Olympic show.  We're pretty grateful you guys let us come over and smack you around for 37 medals.  In all seriousness however, it was a great event:

The U.S. won a record 37 medals, with a silver from the men's hockey final. The U.S. total included golds by the four-man bobsled team led by driver Steven Holcomb, the first gold medal ever by a skier in Nordic Combined (Bill Demong), and the expected brilliance of Shaun White in the snowboard halfpipe.

To their credit, despite a slow start and some disappointments in events that were supposed to be almost sure things, the Canadians won a record number of gold medals, with that one big event, the men's hockey championship, remaining on Sunday.

But no gold medal was as stirring, as inspiring, as the bronze won by figure skater Joannie Rochette, who competed despite the death of her beloved mother two days before the women's short program.

She skated flawlessly in that first night of the competition, then dazzled the crowd in the free skate, winning the hearts of a nation and the respect of those watching around the world.

Years from now, they will talk of her strength and her bravery, but she just saw herself as the daughter who shared a dream with a mother who wouldn't let her fail.

She wasn't perfect in her performance, but in an imperfect Games, she was a beacon of all that is right about sports.

An imperfect Games in an imperfect world.  Still, nice to see the world put it aside every couple of years and play games.

We even forgive you for Nickelback.