I wish I could say I'm surprised at how much Nova Scotia sucks at the Winter Games but I'm really not. I know of three major sports where the top seeded athlete was not even asked to compete in the Winter Games. How can you be ranked number 1 in your sport for the province and be ready, willing and able to compete in the games and yet not even be considered? In another sport, the number 2 ranked athlete in the province was not asked to compete but the 9th ranked athlete was... hmmm... wonder how that happened? Oh, riiiiight... the coach is number 9's father.

I follow local athletes, artists and musicians because I like to see Nova Scotia do well on the national and international front but when it's just a who's who of mediocre athletes chosen through favours by people with agendas then it's no longer a sporting event... it's a political farce and an embarrassment to the province. I realize that there are many athletes who deserve to be there but when you hear story after story of highly ranked athletes who were expected to be in the games but overlooked for one reason or another it raises questions.

On a side note. My son is a valley based snowboader who would love to have the chance to watch some events but because we don't live in the HRM (just 20 minutes from Martock, though) and there are no weekend events he doesn't get to see any of them. Since the province won't give non-HRM Nova Scotians even 1 day off to see events I guess I will excuse him from school so he can go. Maybe if you allowed more people a day off to see events they wouldn't be as empty as they appear on TV... when you can find them on TV of course. Screw the Winter Games. —Mom of a future Olympian