Eight years later

For Calgary's Shannon Kleibrink and proud new mom Glenys Bakker, the wounds of 1997 are healed. And for pixie Amy Nixon and wild woman Christine Keshen, a dream that's barely started is already in full swing.

Giving the new curling Olympians jackets and scarves adorned with the Canadian Olympic Team logo (photo) was a nice touch. More than one observer noticed the presence of blue with the red and white – also in the ribbon attached to the medal – but what the hey, Americans are our friends, right?

Right?

The Curling News celebrates with the victors, who won their seventh match in a row, showed true grit in overcoming back-to-back opposing steals in the eighth and ninth frames, and won it on a nifty highlight-reel shot, thus guaranteeing extra news impressions tonight and tomorrow (always an eye on marketing, yep, that's us).

We also sympathize with Team Kelly Scott, who played so well today and all week, improving their offensive game some twenty percentage points in the ten months between the STOH and these Trials, only to lose it in the very last 15 minutes.

And now it's the Calgarians with the chance at their 15 minutes of fame and fortune. At least until public and corporate Canada packs away their flags and kazoos the day after the Torino 2006 closing ceremonies and promptly forgets about our amateur winter athletes for another four years.

Do we sound bitter? If so, so what? Prove us wrong, oh public and corporate Canuckleheads. And while you're bristling at the sudden accusatory tone we have presented, why not remember Jeff Stoughton's words earlier this week, when he rushed to the defense of a beleaguered Team Ferbey:

For some reason Canadians seem to hate a winner. The poor guy, he's out trying his best and people are cheering misses. I think that's pretty ignorant and rude of the crowd to do that to a true champion that's out there.
I don't know why. It seems the Canadian mentality is that they don't seem to love their winners and these guys are certainly big winners.

Love your winners, folks. Starting with Kleibrink and finishing with either Stoughton or Brad Gushue tomorrow.

After all... the Americans wouldn't dream of doing otherwise for their own.