[LINK] "Why Quebec athletes are leading the way for Canada at Sochi Games"

[rfmcdonald]

Paul Waldie, Sean Gordon and Les Perreaux's article in The Globe and Mail reporting on the strong showing of Québec athletes at Sochi. It turns out that a culture of sports achievement and extensive government funding works.

When a reporter from Britain pointed out that were Quebec a country, it would be second in the medal count, [Alexandre] Bilodeau swerved around the sovereignty debate. “We’re both proud to be Quebeckers,” he said pointing to silver medalist and fellow Quebec native Mikaël Kingsbury. “But we’re very proud to be Canadians … yes, we do a lot of good things in Quebec
The medals won by Mr. Kingsbury and Mr. Bilodeau were the sixth and seventh Canada has captured at the Sochi Games. As of Tuesday morning, six of Canada's nine medals have been captured by Quebec athletes, including three golds.

Short-track speed skater Charles Hamelin, who also won gold on Monday, was the only Canadian double-gold medalist at the 2010 Olympics; overall, Quebec-based competitors won eight of the 15 individual medals awarded to Canadians in Vancouver.

In Sochi, Quebec-based athletes have posted the top Canadian result in all but five of the 18 competitions held so far in which Canadian athletes are represented.

The obvious question is: Why? Poet and singer Gilles Vigneault surely provided part of the answer with his iconic Quebecois hymn Mon pays c’est l’hiver, but that’s not an especially comprehensive explanation. There are many facets to the answer, from Quebec’s geography, to bigger and better funding for Quebec athletes that has led to nearly 40 per cent of Canada’s Sochi delegation hailing from the province.

But there are more ephemeral elements, too – the small gesture of a sporting idol autographing a ski jacket, and years later, an athlete stepping onto an Olympic podium. That’s precisely what happened this week in Sochi when 41-year-old former Olympic champion moguls skier Jean-Luc Brassard (the signer) was on hand to watch 19-year-old Justine Dufour-Lapointe (the signee) win the women’s moguls event.

You can draw a straight line between what Brassard did in Lillehammer 20 years ago and an event involving an athlete who wasn’t even around to see it, the story of the success of Quebec athletes at this Games is at least partly one of athletes building dreams for subsequent generations.