I think hockey was the only gold medal that Canada truly cared about. When Canada beat Slovakia on Friday night, the town went nuts and that was only the quarter finals game. Today was the gold medal game versus the United States, the only team Canada lost to in the Olympics. To say people were rabid would be understating the mood of the city. When I was a quarter of a mile from BC Place or the nearest bar when Canada scored their first goal. I literally felt the air move when fans exploded in cheers. It was unlike much I’ve experienced before. When the United States scored to tie the game with 24 seconds left in the 3rd period, I thought people would start crying. The mob scene that followed Canada’s overtime win was incredible. After an hour of photographing and fighting through the crowds, I left. All the way back to Seth and Vickie’s place there were fans streaming into downtown to celebrate. It was pretty unreal.

My day didn’t start out covering fans watching the game. It started following a small group of protestors. This was the same group that I’ve covered before, but not the same group that engaged police and caused property damage. The Vancouver Police blocked off several streets to keep the protestors moving in a certain direction but they also cleared the way for the protestors. They even pulled away a couple very pissed off hockey fans that looked like the wanted to start something with the protestors. I have to say that the Vancouver Police have been some of the nicest people I’ve meet here. Everyone has been kind, respectful and helpful. The most I’ve seen them to do engage someone was to pull them aside, talk to them for a couple minutes then let them go about their business. I think just about any city in the United States would react in a much different way.

I watched the closing ceremonies among a small group of people my new favorite Vancouver hangout caffe, La Fontana. I felt this was a much more appropriate way to close out the Olympics than to fight through crowds of drunken people, again.

In the end the United States earned 37 medals, Germany had 30 and Canada made a strong push in the last couple days to earn 27 medals. So America did Defeat the World.