Olympic Updates! - Edited

Canada is doing great in the jumping (equestrian) events! Woo hoo!

Edited to add: I'm so thrilled that Canada won the silver medal in team jumping. The jumping team hasn't brought home a medal since 1964. Even more important, Ian Miller, 61, who has been a part of the team since 1972 (I believe he has matched a world record for the individual who has represented his country the most times in the Olympics; had Canada not withdrew from Moscow he would be in the lead) has NEVER brought home a medal, and yet is the backbone of the Canadian team. Poignantly, his wife died in March this past year and it's very sad that she was unable to live to see this victory. She was his biggest fan and supporter. For the next Olympics, Ian's two children could also be representing Canada, which is just cool.

Re: the actual competition; because Mac Cone had to pull his horse on Sunday due to injury, the team only had three members so they lost their discard score option :-(. Had Matt not had to pull, they may have actually brought home a gold! Eric Lamaze had a brilliant ride on his brilliant horse Hickstead.

The last neat thing about the top three were that the top two were North American teams, and the bronze went to Norway. In the case of Canada and Norway ... these are cool climate countries and I find it astounding that the horses were able to perform so well in the heat of a summer in Hong Kong. Not to mention that these are spots normally taken up by European countries, who typically dominate horse sport. It was shocking that Germany and Great Britain were not medal winners.

I pointed out to the children that the beauty of equestrian sports is the longevity of the riders. The competitors this week have ranged in age from 16 (or was it 18?) to 68, unlike many sports where by 26 you are over the hill.

It's just too bad that the equestrian sports don't make it to regular station coverage in Canada. We had to purchase another station for a month (BOLD TV, formerly Country Canada) to be able to watch.