Hockey players act like hockey players, world aghast

If you win an Olympic gold medal in hockey, you get to drink beer, smoke cigars, and drive the Zamboni. It's that simple.  It's probably in the Canadian constitution somewhere.

Yet suddenly, people couldn't recognize a Zamboni have taken it upon themselves to chide the Canadian women's hockey team for celebrating their 2-0 Olympic gold medal victory over the U.S. on the ice--after the fans had left the arena.

Some players wearing their gold medals were chewing on them. Some were drinking champagne. Some were drinking beer or pouring it into teammates' mouths. Some were doing their drinking while smoking cigars, or reclining on the ice and kicking their feet into the air, or honking the Zamboni's horn, or even attempting to drive the ice-resurfacing vehicle.

Canadians seemed to think this was great, an appropriate response to an emotional triumph. But when a reporter asked someone from the International Olympic Committee - an organization renowned for its stuffiness - that official did not. [...]

Steve Keough, a Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) spokesman, said the celebration was "not something uncommon in Canada." [PI]

You know why Canadians thought it was great? Because we see these women as athletes, not novelty fetish items. Athletes do this sort of thing. These particular athletes had just won a gold medal in Canada's favorite sport.

They were entitled to celebrate. The woman who scored both goals, Marie-Philip Poulin, was photographed drinking a beer. Scolds feigned outrage because she's 18 and the drinking age in British Columbia is 19. A guy who scored two goals in a gold medal game would be allowed to savor a beer in peace. The hockey etiquette police are probably unaware that it's traditional to for the winning team to guzzle champagne from the Stanley Cup.

The women didn't set out to cause a scene. They'd been partying in the locker room and they were invited back out onto the ice by photographers who wanted what should have read as cliches: Victorious athletes celebrating. The New York Times blog suggests that the women were posing for personal souvenir shots and didn't even realize that an AP photographer was still in the building.

But because the winners were women, the rest of the world was scandalized by their harmless exuberance. 

Comments

[Eric Jaffa]

A mild objection from an IOC official doesn't = "the rest of the world was scandalized"

[Jon H]

I've seen it suggested that in Poulin's home province, legal age is 18.

Also, she's apparently a month away from being 19.

A woman writer at the New York Times was concern-trolling that this 'incident' would make it more likely that women's hockey would be dropped from the Olympics. IMHO, this 'incident' will make women's hockey more memorable than most other events in this Olympics, which unfortunately are forgotten (along with the athletes) almost as soon as the medals are handed out.

[cfrost]

My God. Here is yet another example of the kind of depravity we've come to expect from our horrible socialist neighbors to the north. Their womenfolk have become monsters! No doubt these slatternly canuks followed this ugly scene with the most debased, orgiastic goings-on imaginable, probably involving some sort of Canadian animals. Musk oxen perhaps.

Pray for Canada.

[Tim Vandergrift]

The important thing is that these hockey players lacked something crucial if they were going to drink beer, smoke cigars and whoop it up in a post-match bonding ritual.

Penises.

If it was the men's team the AP photographer would have had his shot in black and white on the cover of some bombastic publication with an inspiring and sappy title, 'Savoring Gold', or suchlike and it would have elicited smiles and murmurs about camaraderie and shared experiences.

Instead, because the players were cursed with the dreaded vagina, they are disqualified from savouring triumph, and should have gone back to the locker room to tart themselves up in demure but revealing but sensible clothing to show proper respect for the penis-fetishists who are the IOC.

Bah.

[Windypundit]

Jon H, I love the phrase "concern-trolling." That captures the behavior so well that I'm going to steal it.

[how to hockey]

tim summed it up perfectly

if i had one the gold medal in front of 30000 fans i would have done the same, that being said teams hire people to ensure these sort of PR things dont happen and they obviously made a mistake.

[karen]

The important thing is that these hockey players lacked something crucial if they were going to drink beer, smoke cigars and whoop it up in a post-match bonding ritual.

Penises.

If it was the men's team the AP photographer would have had his shot in black and white on the cover of some bombastic publication with an inspiring and sappy title, 'Savoring Gold', or suchlike and it would have elicited smiles and murmurs about camaraderie and shared experiences.

Instead, because the players were cursed with the dreaded vagina, they are disqualified from savouring triumph, and should have gone back to the locker room to tart themselves up in demure but revealing but sensible clothing to show proper respect for the penis-fetishists who are the IOC.

Yes, it is all a grand conspiracy of Sexism! In! Sports! In fact, the (at least) four athletes that had previously been sent home from Vancouver due to celebrating in a way the IOC felt disgraced either their medal or the neutrality of a venue were women! Oh, wait...

[The Phantom]

Good for the Canadian women's hockey team. The criticism was bullshit and I hope they're still partying somewhere.

And though I was rooting for the American men big time, a tip of the mountie hat to the Canadian team for their win tonight.

In a way, the natural hockey order has asserted itself with these Olympics.

But we'll get you next time!

[Lesley]

I loved seeing those ladies huffing cigars and enjoying themselves. I'm sure many Canadians did, too, but trust the media to build a mountain out of nothing.

[Danton]

As for hockey, I--an American--am glad Canada's women's and men's teams got the gold medal. I'm just really, really happy that the US took the gold medal in the four-man bobsleigh.

Now let's have four-women bobsleigh at Sochi. And ski jumping, too. How about it, IOC?