Breakfast In Beijing A Triple Treat

We went to bed comfortable in the knowledge we'd be wake up to Canada's first medal of these Beijing Games. But three of them?
What a pleasant way to dive into breakfast for medal-starved Canadians, who learned their sporting heroes had claimed a full set of Olympic hardware. Gold for wrestler Carol Huynh. Silver for rowers Scott Frandsen and Dave Calder. Bronze for wrestler Tonya Verbeek.
CBC has always done the warm and fuzzy moments well and this morning was no exception. Our favourite moment was watching wrestling teammates Huynh and Verbeek holding hands while watching a replay of the former standing on the top of the podium, tears streaming down her face as O Canada played for the first time in Beijing.
We can't credit CBC for that, but it just added a little magic to the overall story.
"It was surreal," Huynh told Olympic Morning anchor Diana Swain hours after her surprising triumph. "That's kind of what I pictured (in her ultimate Olympic dream), me bawling my eyes out."
Swain later called it her most enjoyable moment of the Games so far. We're guessing she had plenty of company from red-eyed Canadians watching from coast-to-coast on that one.
Those who watched Huynh's match live would have caught this reaction from the 27-year-old from Hazelton, B.C., who is an Olympic unknown no longer.
"I was just thinking of how proud I am to be Canadian," said Huynh, a Games rookie, after her golden victory. "I wrestled the match of my life and it was awesome."
We can imagine a lot of Canadians are feeling a whole lot better about things this morning. Keep this up and the 'Even Togo is better than us' jokes should stop soon enough (though anyone who's really paying attention should know said Togo medallist was actually born and raised in France but gravy trained on a relative's birthplace).
*****
Canadians everywhere should applaud the attitude of Jessica Zelinka, who finished an impressive sixth in her first Olympic heptathlon. But that clearly didn't satisfy the London, Ont., native who wanted the ultimate prize.
"I really would have liked to have come home with a medal," she told CBC's Elliotte Friedman. "When you think about going to the Olympics, the first thing you want is to be at your absolute best and I did that. The second thing you want is a medal."
Really, can we ask our athletes to think any differently than that?