A thought on the Winter Olympics, and cheering for the home team

“I have never met a group of people who so routinely make so many personal sacrifices for their job. And they start so young. At a time when people are navigating Grade 8, they basically put any semblance of a normal life on hold so they can devote all their time and energy to one thing. Then they spend the rest of their formative years doing that one thing over and over again with one goal in mind: representing us — representing Canada — at the Olympics… When it comes to the Winter Olympics and Team Canada, the division of labour is crystal clear: They do all the work, we do all the cheering. Now let’s do our job so they can do theirs.”
— Rick Mercer

These words were part of Rick’s rant in the Feb. 6, 2018, edition of Rick Mercer Report. I read them last evening while I was reading Rick’s book Final Report, and they are of course quite timely eight years later, with the Olympics now underway in Milan.

This was Rick’s 15th and final season of the Rick Mercer Report, which started as Monday Report after he left This Hour Has 22 Minutes and struck out on his own in Toronto with producer and partner Gerald Lunz.

In Final Report, he says videographer Don Spence — who recorded every rant — calculated they together had walked 42 kilometres over the years in Graffiti Alley, the thin pedestrian walkway near Spadina and Queen Street West in Toronto, “me marching forward with a chip on my shoulder, Don marching backward, a 45-pound camera on his.”

They certainly were quite a team.

You can see the rant of that episode here: