"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" This is a question intended to challenge people’s perceptions of how they see the world and is something you have all undoubtedly heard many times.
Putting a little bit of a spin on this question for the sports minded person, “If a Canadian breaks a world record does it make a sound?”
Being a sports fan I woke up on March 15th and performed my typical morning ritual, turned on the television to sports highlights, opened up the newspaper to the sports section and went to my favourite sports websites to get the happenings of the night before.
Unfortunately it was not to my surprise that there weren’t headlines informing me of one of the most significant sporting performances in our country in 2009.
I watched hockey, basketball, golf and soccer highlights, I read about the latest Canucks news, their winning streak, their contract challenges (heck I could have probably found out what they had eaten the night before if I would have looked a little bit harder) and finally after about half an hour I found an article, about five sentences long, informing me that Vancouver resident Annamay Pierse had broken a world record.
I know that our city is a hockey city and I don’t expect swimming to get headlines on a regular basis, but on this one day, a day where a local athlete breaks a world record I don’t think it is too much to ask that the local media put swimming ahead of whether the Canucks will resign the Sedins or not.
If I was not actually looking for the article I probably would have missed it. How could there be a chance I could not find out about a local athlete breaking a world record?
“If a Canadian breaks a world record does it make a sound?”
Unlike the question that this version was based off of it doesn’t matter if anyone is there or not. When Pierse broke her world record on March 14th unless you were looking for it you would never have heard about the event.
In a sporting environment where we are starving for positive stories it is unbelievable that this story could get so little attention.
In my next column I will tell you the inspiring story of Annamay Pierse and her journey to become a world record holder.