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Pieter Uni

By Pieter Uni

Summerland’s Kristi Richards failed to reach the podium Saturday night in the ladies moguls finals, but she didn’t fail in capturing the admiration of many Canadians.

The freestyle skier was a podium hopeful but it was her teammate Jennifer Heil that was the favourite to win gold, along with a strong contingent from the United States. But that didn’t stop Richards and after a solid performance in qualifying, the 28-year-old pulled out all the stops in her quest to taste Olympic success.

While her aggressiveness may have cost her a medal, Richards showed a quality that should be celebrated. Instead of playing it safe, Richards mustered up some serious courage and took a calculated chance in hopes of capturing her dream.

“The Olympics is all about risks,” she told a CTV reporter following her race. “And if you’re not willing to go out and take those risks I don’t think there’s much chance at the gold. It was all or nothing for me.”

Richards knew she needed to do something special to win and she didn’t hesitate to try. Better yet, she saluted the crowd following her fall and completed the race. She didn’t shed a tear when it was over, choosing instead to show a tremendous amount of grace in defeat.

Heil won Canada a silver medal, but Richards won Canada’s respect.

Snap shots

Protesters forced the Olympic Torch relay to alter its route through Vancouver Friday and while it was only a minor issue, it was a shame that many of Canada’s war veterans who assembled at Victory Square had their Olympic moment ruined. Standing at the cenotaph, the veterans waving Canadian flags were to greet the Torch, but instead were met by police officers who were forced to reroute torch runner Robert Milton. I appreciate and applaud those who voice their displeasure through protests and rallies and believe their presence is an important one. Just not at the expense of those who gave our country so much.

Kudos to the Kelowna Rockets. At Saturday night’s game versus the Kamloops Blazers, the organization paid respect to Georgian Olympian Nodar Kumaritashvili, who passed away Friday in a tragic luge accident. The Rockets held a minute of silence before the game began and showed that the hockey world is one with a conscience.

The NFL’s recent Super Bowl lived up to the hype as the Saints won their first title over the Indianapolis Colts. Too bad the game was interrupted by so many commercials. While many of the millions who watched the game tuned in to see Megan Fox splash around in the tub, footballs fans were forced to watch a game slowed to a snail’s pace. The game had a record 48 minutes of commercials, ridiculous when you realize the game was 60 minutes long.

sports@kelowna.com

Tags: Jennifer Heil, Kelowna Rockets, Kristi Richards, Nodar Kumaritashvili, Olympics, protest

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 at 6:16 am and is filed under Pieter Uni. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.