Olympics: Call these the Sidney Games
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Sidney Crosby: "In Canada, everybody expects the best. So, if you bring that mentality back with you over an 82-game season, you expect the best every day. That's a good mentality to have."
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By the time the torch is lit Friday to open the XXI Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the American narrative will have been foretold by a national media always seeking the next cereal-box icon: There will be superb skiier Lindsey Vonn, flamehaired snowboarder Shaun White and speedskating ace Apolo Anton Ohno.
Not in the eyes of the host nation, though.
In Canada, these will be the Sidney Games.
Sidney Crosby, perhaps the most precocious athlete in Pittsburgh's history, captain of the Stanley Cup champion Penguins and the undisputed face of the National Hockey League, is about to go home and represent his country for the first time in major international competition.
And that home will be delighted to have him back.
"Hockey's not a game in Canada. It's a religion," said former Penguins winger Bob Errey, an Ontario native who now is a broadcaster with the team. "And Sidney Crosby is not really just Troy and Trina's boy. He's Canada's boy. It's been that way since Sid was 13. The whole country watched him grow up, they watched him win the Cup, and now he's about to play for his country right there in his country. This is it. This is his time."
Not so long ago, it was another 22-year-old Pittsburgher's time in a strikingly similar role.
Sports writer Dejan Kovacevic's continuous coverage of the Vancouver Olympics begins later this week:
Wednesday: Pittsburgh
The local participants, apart from the Penguins, also are in hockey: Ryan Malone of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Upper St. Clair with the men, and Brianne McLaughlin of Robert Morris with the women. Two others, in luge and snowboarding, came painfully close.
Thursday: United States
Skiier Lindsey Vonn, speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno and snowboarder Shaun White are among the top 10 American faces to watch.
Friday: Canada
From the Pacific Northwest, a look at what the Games mean to one of North America's most eye-pleasing cities, as well as the nation as a whole.
Saturday: The World
Eighty-nine nations, from Albania to Venezuela, march into BC Place for the opening ceremonies of the XXI Winter Olympics.
• ONLINE: The newest sports page on post-gazette.com includes news, results and athletes biographies of all U.S. athletes.
• BLOG: Kovacevic reports regularly from Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia.
It was Sept. 15, 1987, a month after Crosby was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the nation was transfixed by the climactic game between Canada and the Soviet Union, hockey's ultimate Goliath-vs.-Goliath matchup, in an international tournament called the Canada Cup that preceded the NHL's entry into the Olympics.
First Published February 7, 2010 12:00 am
