Letter: Canadian women showed poor sportsmanship following gold-medal loss to U.S.
By Letter to the Editor on February 24, 2026.
Dear editor, I was thoroughly disgusted by the behaviour of the Canadian Women’s Olympic Hockey Team when they lost the gold medal to the U.S. After Marie-Philip Poulin retuned to her team’s bench, she slammed the door and threw down her stick like a spoiled child having a tantrum. (Nice one, Captain). During the medal presentation, the Swiss team (the bronze medal winners) all smiled, waved at the fans and accepted their prizes happily and graciously. Next, when the medals and stuffed toy (that was presented to all medal winners) were presented to the Canadian women, they did not smile, they did not acknowledge the fans and some of them had such a look of disgust on their faces, you’d think that stuffed toy was covered in dog poop. I have never witnessed such poor sportsmanship in my entire life of almost 70 years. I know they were disappointed, but silver is not nothing. They should have been proud of how hard they tried and how great they played, and accepted their medals graciously. Instead, in my opinion, they were an embarrassment to Canada. Sharon Degenstein Medicine Hat 8-7
I agree Sharon. When you have lost the last 7 games to the Americans we expected it, and getting Silver was what we expected and they shouldn’t have expected anymore. Those of us who tried to be athletes were always disgusted with that type of attitude while children were watching.
I learned while in high school that schools with a much larger population usually win when they have a lot more people to choose from and it’s no different with Canada and the U. S. Where we once dominated the sport they have caught up and it’s that way with curling also with Canadians as their coaches. It’s something we better learn to face.
Surely these athletes have young children they know that would be happy getting these stuffed animals, instead of throwing them around?