Ottawa Citizen

All medals are created equal

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Re: Mixed doubles curling is an Olympic sham — and not all gold medals are created equal, Feb. 13.

Excuse me if I am one of the millions of proud Canadians celebratin­g yet another monumental sporting achievemen­t by Canada’s amazing Olympic athletes. Kaitlyn Lawes and John Morris have spent a large portion of their lives training to be in peak physical form and practising relentless­ly the extremely technical sport of curling to become the best in the world.

I have only curled twice in my life, and do not watch curling on TV until the Winter Olympics every fourth year. I find myself riveted to the coverage as Canada’s finest compete against the rest of the world’s best. The fact that they were able to come together in such a short period of time and capture a gold medal is a testament to their dedication and skill.

Patrick Chan and the rest of Team Canada’s figure skaters have laboured tirelessly in cold arenas since they were young. They have inspired the entire country.

Every four years, Canadians hunker down during our coldest, darkest, most miserable month of the year to have our hearts warmed, our days brightened and our spirits lifted by our incredible Olympic athletes. Millions of Canadian children will now want to grow up to be Olympic athletes because of the inspiratio­n they found in the mixed curling and team figure skating gold medals. Let’s not try to equate or compare gold medals, Canada; let’s all celebrate the achievemen­ts of our heroes, even if a certain columnist is trying to rain on our Olympic parade.

Gary Serviss, Petawawa

 ?? DAN ISTITENE/GETTY IMAGES ?? Readers aren’t too happy about columnist Steve Simmons’ dismissal of mixed curling as a sham Olympic event. They point to the hard work that Kaitlyn Lawes and John Morris put in to win gold.
DAN ISTITENE/GETTY IMAGES Readers aren’t too happy about columnist Steve Simmons’ dismissal of mixed curling as a sham Olympic event. They point to the hard work that Kaitlyn Lawes and John Morris put in to win gold.

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