Letter: Let’s be sure to honour Medicine Hat’s own

By Letter to the Editor on August 20, 2021.

Dear editor,

The 2021/2021 Olympics has been over for a few weeks. During these tough COVID-19 times, perhaps we should reflect on the gems of positivity in what may feel like a field of negatives. Two such gems have been the superstar runner, Sage Watson, and the internationally recognized commentator, Mark Sakamoto – both from Medicine Hat.

For Sage Watson, she may not have won any medals, but WOW did she do Canada proud. On TV, I saw her run in one of the qualifying races for the 400-metre hurdles. Out of nine runners, she was eighth with about 50 metres to go. She then did the impossible. She poured it on and came in fourth to qualify. And then again, in the 4 X 400-metre women’s relay race, they lost out and came in fourth by six tenths of a second.

Being fourth in all the world, making it through all the qualifying heats to be in the Big League – that is truly remarkable. There was also an extra touch of class from Sage. More than one station remarked about her wearing lipstick in the athletics. As she notes, “When you look good and feel good, you do good.” She certainly did.

As a final note, Mark Sakamoto gave highly interesting film clips of comments and reviews of Japan and Japanese culture for CBC.

The series was called “Sugoi (very) Tokyo.” These gave depth and soul to the host country, more meaning to the Olympics other than athletics. Whereas too many countries kill each other over ethnic differences, here in Canada we respect and cherish multi-cultural diversity. Mark gave substance to this ideal, or as he quoted his grandmother in one of his commentaries – “Ganbette” or “We are all in this together.”

John Cherwonogrodzky

Medicine Hat

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