Much Ado About Nothing
BY SCOTT TAYLOR Photos by Rusty Barton and courtesy Canadian Centre for Sport Manitoba and hockeycanada. com
Offering up an“ apology” that she didn’ t have to make, Ste. Anne, Manitoba’ s magnificent Jocelyne Larocque showed nothing but grace under pressure.
After playing a remarkable 31 minutes in the gold medal game at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, Larocque was heartbroken that Canada fell 3-2 to the United States in a shootout. We’ ve all known for a long, long time that shootouts should never decide Olympic gold medal games, but rules are rules and in the end, Canada lost gold, not on a hockey outcome, but on a skills competition. The heartbreaking loss was not Larocque’ s fault.
So when the silver medals were being handed out, Larocque lowered her head, accepted the medal and then immediately took it off and held it in her hand. She didn’ t throw it into the stands and she didn’ t stomp on it in front of international TV cameras. She simply took it off and held it.
You’ d have thought she burned the flag.
Later, in one of the most childish examples of international blue blazerwearing officials acting like dickheads in front of the greatest athletes in the world, Larocque was confronted just outside the Team Canada dressing room by an upper-class twit from the International Ice Hockey Federation who proceeded to dress her down.
According to the Globe & Mail,“ few people saw the incident, but there was Larocque, tears welling up in her eyes, holding her unwanted silver medal, being told by a man in a suit about the‘ legal’ reasons why she can ' t refuse to wear it.”
“ The conversation with the IIHF official ended with Larocque nodding compliantly and agreeing to wear the medal,” the Globe & Mail report continued.“ She understood the situation. She then turned a corner and walked down the hallway leading to the Canadian dressing room. It ' s not clear if she ever put it back on.”
Make no mistake, IIHF regulations do state that“ medals have to be worn by the players around the neck in respectful manner for the duration of the closing ceremony and the following post-game mixed zone and media conference procedures. Failure to follow those rules will be reported to the IIHF disciplinary board and could result in additional disciplinary sanctions.”
It’ s unlikely any hockey player has ever actually read those regulations. Who
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