So the Olympics are a wrap. The real ones, anyway. And sitting in bed with my wife, kid and dog Sunday morning, sipping coffee and rooting Canada's men's hockey team on to glory, I was struck by a thought:
Man am I glad my daughter was paying attention to these games.
There are a lot of reasons to dislike the Olympics — blind eyes turned to human rights abuses by host countries and rampant commercialism chief among them - but when it comes to shining a light on inspiring athletes and role models, the Olympics are tough to beat.
And if you're the parent of a Canadian girl, these were a particularly damn good couple of weeks.
Canada may've come a very respectable third on the gold medal charts in Sochi but if you look only at medals won by women Canada came out on top. Who carried the maple leaf into the opening ceremonies? Canadian women's hockey captain Hayley Wickenheiser. Who carried it in for the closing festivities? Bobsled gold medalists Heather Moyse and Kaillie Humphries.
From the inspiring story of the Dufour-Lapointe sisters to the absolute domination of the Jennifer Jones rink in curling the theme of this year's winter games seemed to be Canadian girls kick ass. Even the star-studded men's hockey team took a backseat of sorts to their female counterparts - sure, the surgical precision with which they picked apart opponent after opponent on their way to gold was a sight to behold but in terms of raw emotion and inspiration it doesn't hold a candle to the dramatic, emotional come-from-behind triumph of Captain Wickenheiser and crew.
As the father of a young girl I worry about role models in all walks of life. I want her to see women succeeding and dominating in whatever they choose to do. And for the past few weeks in Sochi, the women doing a fair bit of that succeeding and dominating had maple leaves on their chests.
Thanks ladies. You did us proud.
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