The Montreal Olympics were in July 1976, the bicentennial, at the height of patriotism.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
My very best memory of Montreal was the moment inside the Olympic arena when I was waiting under the stadium and those majestic gates opened up. It was a whole other world.
My first Olympics was Munich in 1972. I am better now than I was then, in knowledge and experience. The age of top riders generally tends to be older than in other sports because it takes a lot of time to be consistent.
Waving the flag at the 1976 Olympics wasn't my idea. It was too much apple pie and ice cream. Not that I don't love my country, but I felt it was my victory up there, I put all the time into it.
I will remember all the days at the Olympics.
But inside of me I knew that the Olympics were still there. I was still young enough. I knew that once I transitioned out of hockey, it would be really hard to go back.
I was turning actually 15 at the Olympics in '76... I don't think that one year makes a huge difference.
Holding an Olympic Games means evoking history.
There was a time there in the mid '80s to the '90s there that we played six finals, three Canada Cups, we were playing hockey almost 10 months a year for a long time there.
I remember standing on a medal podium at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, imbued with a sense that if you won enough basketball games, there was no such thing as poor, backward, country, female, or inferior.
In Montreal, I kept thinking, 'Pay attention: this is the Olympics! It only happens once every four years!'