Americans were treated to a rousing and celebratory conclusion of the Winter Olympic Games in Milan on Sunday as Team USA edged out Canada in the men’s hockey final with a dramatic overtime victory.
It was our country’s first gold in hockey since 1980, when an upstart team of amateurs dethroned Russia in the semi-finals and beat Finland for the gold.
The Olympics began more than two weeks ago with the media focused on a few American athletes expressing their misgivings with representing a politically divided nation. It ended with a team of hockey players singing along to Toby Keith’s patriotic anthem, “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue.”
You might remember the late country music artist wrote the song a week after the terrorist attacks in September of 2001 to capture the rage Americans were feeling. Minutes after receiving their medal, Team USA sang that, “We’ll always stand and salute, We’ll always recognize, When we see Old Glory Flying, There’s a lot of men dead, So we can sleep in peace at night when we lay down our head.”
Interviewed after the game, Jack Hughes, who scored the winning goal in overtime, was asked to sum up his emotions.
“This is all about our country right now. I love the USA,” he said. “I love my teammates … I’m so proud to be an American today.”
Thousands of miles away, in millions of American homes, tens of millions of citizens were thinking and feeling the very same thing.
Whether in hockey or the bobsled or on the ski slopes, viewers were treated to a daily reminder, charge, and challenge:
Never, ever, ever give up or give in — even when you lose two front teeth like Jack Hughes did in Sunday’s game.
American Olympic figure skater Alysa Liu won gold last week because of her incredible gifts and talents on the ice.
But she was only able to skate because her father, Arthur Liu, first fled Communist China as a political refugee after the Tiananmen Square massacre.
“Honestly, I would just have the main focus be like my dad’s story, because his story is so cool,” she said. “Everything happened because of what he did, so, like I feel like we got to start with the roots.”
After fleeing China, Arthur settled in California where he attended and graduated from the University of California Law School.
Successful people are always standing on the shoulders of others.
Megan Keller, captain of the United States women’s gold-winning ice hockey team, was the hero who scored the final goal in overtime last week to beat Canada.
Taking a pass from Taylor Heise, she recognized her unique opportunity for a one-on-one opportunity with the Canadian defender. She said one question came to her mind:
“Why not?”
The former Boston College Eagle made an incredible move, putting the puck passed the goalie, a shot that sends her into Olympic history.
“But obviously, we would not be in this position if our goaltender didn’t play outstanding in Aerin Frankel,” she said. “Huge late goal by [Hilary Knight]. Top to bottom, this entire group, we stuck together the whole way. Really proud to be a part of this group.”
Greatness requires guts. It involves taking chances.
We’ve previously highlighted five-time Olympian and gold medalist bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor. First and foremost she’s a wife to Nic and mother to Nico and Noah, both of whom are deaf. Nico has Down syndrome.
“Parenting my two sons with disabilities has done everything for me,” she told NBC. “It’s given me patience, it’s given me the drive to keep going, and it’s made me realize that even my worst days on bobsled are better than the worst days as a parent.”
“They mean everything to me, and at the end of the day, if I win medals or lose medals, it doesn’t matter, because I’m still mom to them. I still get to go home and get cuddles.”
NBC’s Mike Tirico summed up well the impact of this year’s Olympics in the final minutes of Sunday’s hockey broadcast.
“What you saw today was the build of a generation,” he said. “Inspired perhaps by that team that lost in 2010 in Vancouver to the Sidney Crosby ‘Golden Goal’ in overtime. Or the team where T.J. Oshie had all those shootout goals in 2014. That’s when these guys were doing what you’re doing, watching on TV. And they were young, and they were living the dream.
He then delivered the kicker:
“So, for all the young people out there, not just the hockey, but all the Olympics you’ve watched, those dreams are formed now. Go chase them and go get them. Because our country loves sports, and it brings us together unlike anything else. And if you didn’t know that, if you haven’t been watching the last two weeks.”
Most of us won’t be competing in the Olympics, but we’re all competing in life. We’re fathers or mothers, sons or daughters, bosses and employees, friends and neighbors. Most importantly, we’re hopefully and prayerfully, children of the King of Kings.
Our ultimate reward is not based on performance. We won’t be judged by nameless faces like at the Olympics, and there will be no overtime, though we’re all living in a form of “sudden death” when you consider how fragile this life can be.
But we’re nevertheless called to work, prepare, be bold, execute — and be grateful for the gifts we’re given and gifted.
Be a Jack Hughes. Leave nothing out there — give it all you’ve got — and thank the Lord every step of the way.