twizzles and sticks

There's something about Canadian women's olympic hockey. Fuck, I love it. I don't know why, but I feel like it is truly the essence of sport.
We had a few (two) people over to watch the usual Sunday night shows, and ended up watching ice dancing afterwards. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard. The idea that an "athlete" could wear a pink and green maypole-ish outfit and get dinged by the judges for her "twizzle" is just absurd to me. Yeah, twizzle is actually a term in ice dancing. The commentators will say things like "ooh, their twizzles were a little out of synch on that last pass..." The hysterics started when I made an off-colour comment about "crazy, bendy sex" that the couple with the matching last names must have. Little did I know, they were brother and sister. Normal! Then, there was the dropping. There were five solid oops-babe-sorry-I-dropped-you-on-your-chiffon-wearin'-ass-on-this-cold-hard-ice moments. We must have annoyed the hell out of the neighbours chanting "fall! fall! fall!" at the top of our lungs and then screaming with laughter when they did.
Now, I'm not being stupid enough as to say I could be an ice dancer. No way, man, my twizzle is all off. I'm sure it's incredibly difficult. But there's something about ice dancing that is just so silly. It's like figure skating without jumping. Or something. I dunno. But watching the vasoline-toothed, nylon-wearing women and the vasoline-toothed, nylon-wearing men prancing around seems so anti-sport. To me.
But the Canadian women's ice hockey team. God, they get me choked up every damn time. There's something so awesome about the fact that they have the medal ceremony right there on the ice, with the losing team looking dejectedly at their silvers, strewn equipment all over the ice... families that have sacrificed so much bawling in the stands, and every Canadian that can possibly get themself to Italy singing tunelessly along to the anthem. The girls are drenched in sweat and can't stop jumping up and down, and then a few usually burst into tears when they recieve their medals. There's none of the swagger of, say, the American track athletes at the summer games, or even the men's ice hockey team. I knew one or two players on Team Canada a few years ago, and I've seen how they live; student life at best. They get very little funding from the government, and most of them work except in the year before the Olympics. They sacrifice left, right and center to get to where they are, and it is truly love of the sport; not something they happen to be good at and discovered they could get cushy sponsorship deals by doing. The NHL is all fine and good, but they rest plumply on their seven- and eight-figure salaries in between training. Doesn't move me quite as much.
And there's something about such dedication to a sport that means so much to a country that, well shucks, roundabout this time every four years or so, just gets me right choked up.