Winter Games

On television from Toronto we watched the Olympics in Sochi, where top skiers, skaters, snow-boarders, and bobsledders competed in temperatures that were downright balmy compared with the brutal frost-biting we’re experiencing here. The cold weather is record-breaking, apparently. ‘Worst winter since Noah built the Ark’ read the headlines (or something like that). It’s a very strange season. Every place we have lived as a family has suffered this winter: drenching rains and disastrous floods in England, drought (then floods) in California, and here an ice storm followed by loads of snow and thirty-one ‘severe cold weather alerts’. Normally there are five or six, I believe (but am not checking). And winter’s not over. I’m guessing we’ll hit forty. There’s just something biblical about all of this.

I’ve always enjoyed watching the Winter Olympics, and usually take up ice-skating every four years as a result. Not this winter. I own my own ice skates (which still surprises me) but have had no wish to don them and head for the nearest outdoor rink. Too darn cold. I’ve skied once this season, and the younger children (plus the dog) have gone sledding multiple times, but the allure of winter sports has diminished considerably. ‘Embrace the winter,’ we were told when we moved to Canada, and I’ve tried, but it’s tough, more like wrestling than hugging this year. An American friend who recently became a Canadian citizen tells me that to pass the citizenship exam I will need to prove that my entire family has skates and hockey gear (does that include the dog? Must check), that husband and I regularly get up before 7 a.m. on weekends to take children to hockey practice (we will have to take someone else's children), and that we expend a set proportion of our annual income on beer (do we have to drink it, too?). I hope she is jesting, but then again, recalling that my Cambridge-educated, England born and bred husband had to spend a full day taking an English proficiency exam it’s just possible that R. is speaking the plain truth.

On the subject of friends, another one of mine, Jennifer Berdahl, has performed an interesting analysis of Olympic medals won at Sochi per country in comparison with the countries’ gender equality scores. While it might not be surprising that countries more committed to upholding women’s rights and opportunities have more women winning medals, the interesting thing is that those countries’ men also win more medals. Check it out: http://jberdahl.blogspot.ca/. I am hoping she repeats the analysis for the Summer Olympics medal-winners.