Before2002, the Canadian hockey world was searching for answers to a long, long losing streak on the international stage. 
In fact, the Canadian National Team had not won an Olympic Gold Medal since 1952. It was about to be the 50th anniversary of that medal as the Salt Lake City Olympics pf 2002 were bearing down.
The pressure from across the Canadian landscape was akin to being a vice, inside a vacuum bubble, at the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific.
“Come back with your shield – or on it.”
That’s a lot of pressure to put on a team, let alone one person.
In Gold: How Gretzky’s Men Ended Canada’s 50-Year Olympic Hockey Drought, author Tim Wharnsby has chronicled the 2002 Canadian Olympic hockey team from planning through to the final game.
All the pressure of a hockey nation was placed on the shoulders of Wayne Gretzky as mastermind of the team, the staff, and the processes of Canada’s men’s Olympic hockey team for 2002.
Wharnsbyis a 30-year veteran reporter of the Toronto Sun as well as the Globe and Mail newspapers. His exquisite narrative is precise, and guides the reader over the excruciating angst felt by the planners who brought Gretzky into the management position, the hiring of Pat Quinn as the head coach, and the ultimate selection of the team.
Any fan of sport knows there is pressure on their favorite team to win. What is difficult to comprehend is the pressure within organizations to win. Compound that with a loss not being addressed for four long years.
Wharnsby goes back to the Oslo Games in 1952 and gives context to the pressure through the years after that, including close calls and disappointing results.
In 1952, Canada bested the United States for the Gold Medal.
Gold takes the hockey fan through the building stages, and finally to the competition itself in Salt Lake City.
There are two chapters in Gold that were especially enlightening.
Chapter 5 – Cujo Czechs Out is a surprisingly interesting piece on the goaltending issues surrounding the Canadian team. The competition amongst the contenders for the top spots on the team was intense, made all the more so by the personalities of the goalies, and the pressures on each.
The second chapter of interest was the following entitled The Rant. The chapter details the events leading up to an egregious abuse of Theo Fleury in a game that resulted in no call in the game.
The pressures on the team, the Canadian hockey leadership, and coaches led to a Gretzky outburst in the media. Wharnsby goes through this series of events and outcomes with meticulous narrative, all in an effort to get the story right, while not excusing anyone of anything.
Importantly, the narrative of the chapter provides a life lesson, and certainly did for Gretzky. We’ll leave that to the reader though.
Gold is a celebration of the 2002 men’s Canadian Olympic Hockey Team. It is also reminder that a nation’s identity can place overwhelming burdens on the heroes who go off to defend that identity, and whether they come home carrying their sticks, carried on them.
Perhaps most poetic for Canada, was the 5-2 score in the Gold Medal game over the United States.
Gold: How Gretzky’s Men Ended Canada’s 50-Year Olympic Hockey Drought is published by Triumph Books of Chicago.
It is listed on Amazon.com through this link, and is available in hardcopy and digital formats.
Our thanks to Triumph Books for the opportunity to read this great narrative, and Tim Wharnsby for the great read.
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