Apparently, Canadian women aren't considered very ladylike when they break out the cigars and booze in honour of winning gold.
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Canadian women's on-ice beer and cigar party raises IOC ire
- February 26, 2010 11:17 AM |
- By Erin Valois
Story provided by
By Mary Vallis, National Post
Apparently, Canadian women aren't considered very ladylike when they break out the cigars and booze in honour of winning gold.
Our women's hockey team is finding that out the hard way. After the arena emptied out last night, they took back to the ice for a bona fide celebration, laying on the ice as they partied with beer and cigars. Rebecca Johnston reportedly tried to drive the Zamboni. Check out the full gallery of photos here.
Apparently, Canadian women aren't considered very ladylike when they break out the cigars and booze in honour of winning gold.
Our women's hockey team is finding that out the hard way. After the arena emptied out last night, they took back to the ice for a bona fide celebration, laying on the ice as they partied with beer and cigars. Rebecca Johnston reportedly tried to drive the Zamboni. Check out the full gallery of photos here.
Marie-Philip Poulin was captured on camera wearing a backwards baseball cap and guzzling a can of beer.
True, Poulin is only 18 (the legal drinking age in B.C. is 19), but she scored both of the goals that brought home Canada's gold-medal win over the Americans. But in Alberta, where the national women's team trains, she is old enough to drink legally.
The International Olympic Committee got its back up:
"I don't think it's a good promotion of sport values," Gilbert Felli, the IOC's executive director of the Olympics, told the Associated Press. "If they celebrate in the changing room, that's one thing, but not in public. We will investigate what happened."
In true Canadian Olympic spirit, Hockey Canada quickly issued an apology. And sure enough, the cigars are absent from Hockey Canada's photo gallery of the win.
Biting the medal? Ok. Accepting a bouquet of flowers? Ok. But drinking Canada's unofficial beverage? Nope, not cool.
Let's get this straight: Our athletes feel like they must apologies when they do not bring home medals for our country, but they also have to apologize for celebrating the right way? Is it possible for the Canadians to win properly?
The women's actions were no worse than those of gold-medal winner Jon Montgomery, who cruised through Whistler drinking a pitcher of beer after his skeleton run, or American snowboarder Scotty Lago, who was photographed grinning as a woman bit his bronze medal in front of his, um, crotch.
On Twitter, fans are in the women's net:
@IrishJava So what if the Canadian women's hockey team celebrated winning the gold with beers, champagne and cigars. Big deal, move along
@bgrebey They swig champagne from the bottle, drink beer from a can and smoke cigars on ice? Love that Canadian women's hockey team.
@brysongilbert If it was the men's hockey team smoking cigars and drinking beer on the ice, would we be talking about this?
@BustedKate Um, why is Canada's women's hockey team apologizing for drinking and smoking cigars after winning gold? I say, Go Canada! Celebrate!!
I say, let the women smoke their cigars. They earned them.
True, Poulin is only 18 (the legal drinking age in B.C. is 19), but she scored both of the goals that brought home Canada's gold-medal win over the Americans. But in Alberta, where the national women's team trains, she is old enough to drink legally.
The International Olympic Committee got its back up:
"I don't think it's a good promotion of sport values," Gilbert Felli, the IOC's executive director of the Olympics, told the Associated Press. "If they celebrate in the changing room, that's one thing, but not in public. We will investigate what happened."
In true Canadian Olympic spirit, Hockey Canada quickly issued an apology. And sure enough, the cigars are absent from Hockey Canada's photo gallery of the win.
Biting the medal? Ok. Accepting a bouquet of flowers? Ok. But drinking Canada's unofficial beverage? Nope, not cool.
Let's get this straight: Our athletes feel like they must apologies when they do not bring home medals for our country, but they also have to apologize for celebrating the right way? Is it possible for the Canadians to win properly?
The women's actions were no worse than those of gold-medal winner Jon Montgomery, who cruised through Whistler drinking a pitcher of beer after his skeleton run, or American snowboarder Scotty Lago, who was photographed grinning as a woman bit his bronze medal in front of his, um, crotch.
On Twitter, fans are in the women's net:
@IrishJava So what if the Canadian women's hockey team celebrated winning the gold with beers, champagne and cigars. Big deal, move along
@bgrebey They swig champagne from the bottle, drink beer from a can and smoke cigars on ice? Love that Canadian women's hockey team.
@brysongilbert If it was the men's hockey team smoking cigars and drinking beer on the ice, would we be talking about this?
@BustedKate Um, why is Canada's women's hockey team apologizing for drinking and smoking cigars after winning gold? I say, Go Canada! Celebrate!!
I say, let the women smoke their cigars. They earned them.
About the Author
- Bruce Arthur Bruce Arthur is the National Post's national sports columnist. A Vancouver native, he has been with the Post since 2001, and a columnist since 2005. He is covering his second Olympics, after the 2008 Games in Beijing. He expects these Games to be slightly less propagandistic, and for China to win slightly fewer medals.
- Joe O'Connor Joe O'Connor is a roving sports feature writer with an open-ended beat. He joined the National Post in 2002, and has spent the past seven years bouncing from sport to sport, offering fresh perspectives and delivering unique stories wherever he goes. Whether it has been getting Don Cherry to open up about his love life; George Chuvalo to talk about heartbreaking loss; or racing down the side of a mountain with former Crazy Canuck, Dave Irwin, the veteran Postie chases a story wherever it leads. Before joining the newspaper he was a two-time silver medalist at the National Magazine Awards. Vancouver will be his first Olympics.
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