Enjoy the game (as a kid) and you’ll stand tall (when you need a job)
Rahman Mohamed

Today Canada is watching Russia; it’s not just because there aren’t any NHL games on but because the Canada’s skating fast and not letting the cold freeze its medal count for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

In between each game there are ads from firms that sponsor Canada’s Olympic team.  Many have advertised increasing support for children’s sports and athletics.  Besides physical activity, does playing sports have other advantages?

According to a study, It’s not how much you play, but how much you enjoy the game: The longitudinal associations between adolescents’ self-esteem and the frequency versus enjoyment of involvement in sports, published in the Journal of youth and adolescence (2014), if you enjoy the game you play your self-esteem will soar.

In a four-year longitudinal study of high school students that examined the enjoyment of sports and self-esteem while controlling frequency of involvement, a direct relationship with sport enjoyment and self-esteem was found; rather than playing more, the more a person enjoys a sport, the higher the self-esteem.

Canada’s Olympians showed.  Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir stood on the podium with Silver in ice dance, but they weren’t disappointed.

Tessa Virtue told CBC Sports “It was a really fun performance … Obviously, you are here to defend your title. You also want to have fun. You still love what you do.”  Moir added that he doesn’t just enjoy skating, he enjoys skating for Canada “To be on this stage representing Canada, it’s a huge thing for Tessa and I to be part of a fantastic Olympic Canadian team … We love what we do. We love skating together. We have a lot of special moments, and that was one of them.”

Now it’s been reported coach that Marina Zoeva was behind Canada (Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir) and America (Meryl Davis and Charlie White).  USA won Gold but it still hasn’t dampened their spirits; CTV reported that Scott Moir said

“And the Olympics — even this coaching thing that is going to make a couple headlines — it gives you great lessons for life,” Moir said. “I think the Olympics has been in my mind since I was a little boy, and it’s kind of what I modelled my life around and to be able to come to two Games, I just needed to say bye I guess.
“It felt like a victory to me, it was a celebration.”