By the time you read this I will have left for my holiday, and, with a little luck and a lot of skill, Canada will have a few more medals in the Olympic games in Sochi. Yesterday saw the Candian Womens’ Curling Team win gold, and the Canadian Womens’ Hockey Team win gold. Both teams had a rough go of it and did what we always hope they do – never give up. Today, it was the men’s Curling team that won over Great Britain, who threw in the towel after 8 ends with a score of 9-3. My question is this: “Why did they give up?” There were two ends left in the game and, yes they were losing quite badly, but there were TWO ENDS LEFT! And this is the OLYMPIC GAMES. If Hayley Wickenheiser, or more importantly, Marie-Philip Poulin, the person who scored both the tying and winning goals, had that thought, where would the team be? Remember that with less than five minutes left Canada was behind 2-0. With less than a minute left the US still had a 1 goal lead, when Poulin put in the goal that evened it up. Then she did it again in overtime! (The funny thing is that Poulin will be remembered for those two goals, but, as it stood, neither would have counted for much without the first goal by Brianne Jenner which seemed to charge the batteries of the Canadian team, and was equally amazing!)
In Curling, Jennifer Jones pulled off some serious magic in their defeat of Sweden for the gold medal game. Her teammate, Katie Lawes was having a rough day, and often relied on Jennifer to bail her out of some bad situations, and while they maintained a small lead throughout the game, there were times where Sweden could have pulled ahead. Once that happens it’s difficult to get back in front, even with years of experience. In the end, they played all 10 ends and won the gold.
If I were to Skip the British team I would likely have kept going to the bitter end. Even if it wasn’t looking good. Why? Two reasons; the first is that you never know what could happen. Something goes wrong for the other team, (think about the American’s watching gold slip away from them with less than 5 minutes left), and the next thing you know you have caught up and forced extra ends. Second, It’s the OLYMPICS, not some regional playoff or national playoff, it’s the epitome of why we get into a sport to begin with. If all else fails, you’ll get silver, (in these two cases, anyway); give it all you’ve got and see what happens.
This is all well and good, Ian, but what does this have to do with hearing? You know I had to tie it in! Far too many times I see people put on a set of hearing aids for the first time, and come back a week later, never having worn them once they left the office, and asking for a refund and just generally giving up. They know they have issues, they know they need help, but the prospect of attaining that help, or perhaps the sense of denial, prevents them from really giving it a good chance to succeed. There are many avenues that can be exhausted before one says that “hearing aids won’t help me”, and trying one set for a few hours is akin to the British throwing in the towel with two ends left to play. The truth is, it may not work out, no matter what we do, but if you don’t give it the opportunity to do its job, then everyone around you loses out. Your friends, your family, and you.
Finally, I want to congratulate all our Olympians for doing Canada, Ontario and Hamilton proud. If I’m lucky, I will get the opportunity to meet and say this to a local hockey hero, Hamilton’s own Laura Fortino, and perhaps have the honour of shaking her hand. Medal or no medal they have all done Canada proud. We also hope the men’s team, having just knocked the US out of gold or silver contention, continues their great work against Sweden.