Let Canada Celebrate

Throughout these 2010 Vancouver Olympics there have been many mishaps such as the luge accident, the opening ceremony technical difficulties, and the weather in general. There is now controversy over the Canadian women's hockey team while they were celebrating their gold medal victory. However, in this case it was not an accident that the women were smoking cigars and drinking in the arena after the game. The legal drinkng age in British Columbia is 19, but there are some players who are 18. Steve Keough, a spokesman for the Canadian Olympic Committee was quoted, “We condone celebrations. … We don’t condone actions of irresponsibility. I think Canadians understand it’s quite an emotional moment for our team. It was not our intention to go against any IOC protocols.” Further comments were made saying things like the locker room celebration did not stay contained; however, for this to be so public was not the intention. There has been talk about how to punish the team, however penalties such banning the team from the closing ceremony, or the Olympic village which have been given for cheating, steroids and other offenses "hardly seems to be in the same league as a few puffs of cigar" (Chris Chase author of the article).

Because they did not act completely responsibly or within the law, I can see how some would say that this was not justifiable celebration. But I agree with the author of this article, that yes what they did was wrong and they have been reprimanded for their actions. But they won a gold medal in their home country, in hockey, which is the most important medal for Canada besides a gold for the men's hockey team. I say no one was hurt and no harm was done, so let them celebrate.