Radville -
With an air of anticipation, on Thursday, March 4th, the Olympic athletes of St. Olivier School gathered in the gymnasium to celebrate the closing of their Olympic Games that had been held Thursday, February 11th.
As the athletes assembled in the gym, their eyes were drawn to the "medal podium" that had been set up at the front, with the burning question running through each athlete's mind, "Who won Gold?"
Mr. Perras congratulated all the athletes for their participation in the events and praised them for giving it their all. He made special mention of the older athletes who, in true Olympic spirit helped the younger athletes throughout the day, guiding them through the events and making sure they had fun.
Mrs. Olson was called up to assist Mr. Perras with the awards ceremony. It was explained that the youngest athlete from the winning team would be called up to the podium to accept the medal for that country, and after the ceremonies, the team leader of the respective countries would, in turn, award medals to each of the winning team members.
The Bronze medal was awarded to Germany, with Davin Bourassa accepting the flowers and medal. The Silver medal went to China and Gracie Hillrud was called upon to receive the flowers and medal for her team. Then the medal everyone was waiting for was awarded. Team Canada was the Gold medal winner and was accepted by Sierra Henheffer. To honour the Gold medal winners, the Canadian National Anthem was then sung.
Once the celebrating had quieted down, Mr. Perras asked the students who had watched any of the Olympics and many hands were raised, showing that Olympic fever reaches all age groups. To close off the ceremonies, the assembly was treated with a video. Brian Williams and the CTV crew that had been covering the Olympics, had put together a short piece, to sum up their Olympic journey during the 17 days. The video, with "I Believe" being sung in the background, honoured the Canadian medal winners and showed many other memorable highlights of the Games. The video was a very touching piece and was definitely the way to cap off the Closing Ceremonies.
See you in London, 2012!
