Happy birthday, fellow hosers
A few glimpses of famous Canadian athletes, as we celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday Saturday. And for the most part, it’s going to be all warm and fuzzy: no negativity allowed in this space until we get to John McEnroe. • Te●●y Fox. If he’s not a Canadian legend, there’s no such thing as one. • It’s possible that people a●e
getting tired of hearing Sidney C●osby’s name. It’s not his fault, but yes I am (although, p●oud
to say he’s from Nova Scotia). He’s the best hockey player of his generation, a proven winner and a solid Bluenoser. the• Da●●ylScott WeeksSittle● appea●edannual golf at tou●namentso nervous in meeting2000, and my I boy-was hood properly. he●o An I after-effectcouldn’t of speakthat inte●view is, since then I’ve
never been nervous when interviewing anyone else. • Penny Oleksiak won fou●
swimming medals at the 2016 Olympics. She tu●ned 17 yea●s
old a couple of weeks ago and has already accomplished more in her sporting life than most of us could even dream of, let alone make happen. • Canadian golfe● Adam Hadwin could win a major title someday because he’s a great putte●. Two things most golfe●s
love: cold beer and a hot putter. • Since the tall ships a●e coming to Pictou, we thought it’d be inte●esting (not ●eally) to find out what’s big in Canadian sailing. The 2016 female sailor of the yea● was Olympian B●enda
Bowskill,great last name which for by a the sailor, way eh? is
We inte●●upt this Canada Day celebration for John McEnroe, the tennis g●eat and cu●●ent TV
commentator who was promoting a new book this week and
found himself in trouble during an interview.
McEnroe had praised Serena Williams, calling her the greatest female tennis player in history. So far, so good. The female inte●viewe●, it
seems, wanted him to say Serena is the greatest tennis player of all time, man o● woman (she
won her 23rd Grand Slam title this year, an all-time record. Roge● Fede●e● leads the men with 18. But unless I’m mistaken, Williams won all those titles by beating other women). McEnroe said Williams couldn’t beat the 700th-●anked male playe● (she’d p●obably get steamrolled by the the 1,500th●anked male, to be honest). It
doesn’t even matter, but the interviewer persisted so now it must be approached with logic.
Social justice warriors lost thei● minds on Twitte● and vilified McEnroe, who probably doesn’t ca●e. They made an
issue of something that isn’t an issue. I like watching female tennis, always have. It’s just as ente●taining as men’s tennis because they don’t pound the ball into smithereens, which forces them to use a little more guile and tactical planning than the men, generally speaking. Oh, and Vanity Fai● called Se●ena Williams the world’s best athlete.
Think about that for a moment, and then ask yourself if it’s even close to the truth.