Canadians have long loved the Olympics.
To definitively demonstrate the depths of that passion would require far more sophisticated statistical analysis than you're going to find here. But anecdotally, given the sky high television ratings, given the relatively few medals won before the watershed of the 2010 Vancouver Games, given the fact that many of the sports have little or no following in this country outside of the Games, one could argue that in the TV era, Canadians must to be counted among the biggest Olympic fans on earth.
So that was the foundation on which the remarkable events of a year ago were constructed. Then add the most ambitious Olympic coverage ever attempted, all live, on all platforms, including a long build-up during which the backstories of the nation's medal hopes became part of the narrative long before the torch was lit.
The stage couldn't have been better set for what became a perfect dramatic arc, with just enough early disappointment, enough tears in the early going to make the final triumph that much sweeter, capped of course by that goal.
What we learned a year ago is that while Canadians love the Olympics, they love the Olympics even more when they're winning, and even more when that winning takes place on home soil - a love so profound that it could kick off a wave of national patriotic euphoria unprecedented in the country's history outside of the end of the two world wars.
So powerful and desirable were the feelings inspired that people simply didn't want them to end. In the hope that the buzz might be prolonged, they wholeheartedly embraced the Paralympics (normally less than an afterthought), and then this past December, transformed the world junior hockey championship final in Buffalo (always a big deal, but never before quite this big, this flag-waving and face-painted - to the point that the uber-patriot Americans actually found us obnoxious) into a mini-gold medal game.
Now comes the tricky part. Many of those beloved 2010 Canadian winter Olympians are back competing on the various World Cup circuits and though the names may be familiar and the results still very good (second behind Germany with 99 medals), the coverage has been reduced to a trickle, and the corporate interest greatly diminished - in other words, almost business as usual.
Meanwhile, a year from now the Olympic engine will be revving up again for the 2012 London Summer Games, with many folks hoping to dig out the jerseys, unfurl their flags, and take to the streets in celebration. Except that there won't be an orgy of medal celebrations this time, the goals will necessarily be more modest than owning the podium - finishing in the top 12 countries would be a triumph - and the media myth-making machinery will be noticeably more modest.
Thus the daunting task for Canada's sports administrators and fundraisers: how to build on the momentum of Vancouver, understanding that there might be a bit of a public letdown next summer because of unrealistic expectations; how to create a sustainable, winning sports culture, supported both by government and business, by tapping into the feelings of patriotism and pride and accomplishment generated during those amazing seventeen days.
What they need to do - and Alex Baumann would be the point man in this endeavour - is help Canadians understand the connection between the way they felt last February, and the serious, well-organized and well-funded elite sports machine that made it happen.
They can start by eliminating those situations - see the Canadian Soccer Association and their dispute with women's national team coach Carolina Morace, whose players could deliver the country's first Olympic medal in a team sport since 1936 - in which we seem determined to shoot ourselves in the foot. Beyond that, the challenge is to keep the money flowing, to keep governments and the business community interested without the payoff of a home Games, and to consistently strive for excellence, rather than have 2010 Vancouver be remembered as a one-off.
Many millions of Canadians would desperately like to feel the way they did a year ago, would like to be able embrace a new group of athletes as heroes, and perhaps be inspired, along with their children, to get up off the couch.
Now's the time to make the case that there's only one path back there, before those golden memories begin to fade.