Sharing in the Victory

Not surprisingly, Canadians everywhere reacted with jubilation to the news that pairs figure skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier were given a second gold medal at the Winter Olympics.

The Toronto City Council interrupted its meeting Friday with a spontaneous outburst of applause at the news, and Sale’s tiny home town of Red Deer began planning a post-Olympics celebration.

“I’m happy, congratulations to both of them, and hallelujah,” said Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who was by coincidence on a visit to Russia.

Like most Canadians, from ordinary citizens to high officials to the skaters themselves, Chretien took pains to refrain from any criticism of the Russian gold medal winners.

Canadian officials said privately they were surprised and delighted by the overwhelming popular support for their figure skating stars in the United States, a turn of events that in their view already had compensated for the loss of a pair of gold medals.

“This was really a case of serendipity for us,” a senior Canadian official said. “If they had won the gold medals to begin with, it would have been a one-day wonder outside Canada. But this way they were in the spotlight day after day, and so was Canada.”

Canadians in Salt Lake City were delighted as well.

Walking briskly past the Mormon Tabernacle with three other young female missionaries in long black coats, Sister Camilla Whatley expressed the dominant feeling: “I was, like: Of course they got the gold. Of course!”

At the Canadian hospitality center downtown, a large storefront decked out with signs that say “Bonne Chance! Go Canada!”, jubilation erupted as Canadian tourists and Olympics volunteers heard the news.

“It was pandemonium, absolute pandemonium,” said Lisa Osachoff, who works next door selling maple-leaf emblazoned hats and “Oh, Canada” sweatshirts.

“Everyone is so happy--and it’s great they didn’t take the medals from the Russians,” she said.

Eric Pothier and his two-man luge teammate had heard about the decision just after placing fifth--the best ever for Canada.

“The last few days have been unbelievable,” he said. “We had people we didn’t know walking up to us on the streets of Park City, saying ‘I’m sorry.’”

The figure-skating controversy completely dominated Canada’s news media over the last few days, but the Winter Olympics almost invariably dominate Canadian news.

Canadians take these Games seriously.

The selection of a goalie for the Olympic hockey team, announced Friday, was the subject of fevered national speculation akin to the Boston media’s obsessions with the New England Patriots’ choice for starting quarterback in the Super Bowl.

But as a nation of skaters--in the way that Austria is a nation of skiers and Australia a nation of swimmers--Canada devotes its most acute attention to any event involving ice.

There had been widespread disappointment over the paucity of medals won by Canadian athletes in the Games so far.

The gloom had begun to lift with the gold medal Thursday by speedskater Catriona LeMay Doan.

Sale and Pelletier now have joined the list of Canadian athletes who have transcended sports to become national heroes.

“The love we have felt from Canadians from coast to coast has been just wonderful,” Pelletier said in a CBC broadcast after the medal announcement Friday.

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William Orme reported from New York and Steve Chawkins reported from Salt Lake City.