Maple Leaf Forever

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/10/2013 (4556 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There’s been much gnashing of teeth over the newly unveiled Canadian Olympic hockey jerseys for the 2014 Sochi Games. But for Canadian athletes, there is only one fashion style that matters. And it doesn’t hurt if it accessorizes well with gold.

 

‘It could be a bed sheet sewn together, it doesn’t matter. There’s so much more to it than what the jersey looks like. I think at the end as long as gold matches with your jersey, it doesn’t really matter’

— 2002 Olympic champion Theoren Fleury tells Callum Ng, writer for Olympic.ca

 

‘All I really wanted was to be an Olympian and to do it for Canada, to wear that Maple Leaf’

— Winnipegger Clara Hughes, one of Canada’s most decorated Olympic athlete

 

‘The first jersey I ever got to wear “for real” in hockey was actually a practice jersey. I was on a conditional tryout with Team Canada for the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan. When I arrived at the rink I had my own room. I entered the change room and hanging all by itself was a grey practice jersey with the Hockey Canada logo on it. It was glorious. It was then that I realized that I needed to perform as well as I could and do the jersey proud’

— Winnipegger Sami Jo Small, two-time Olympic champion, in interview with Olympic.ca’s Ng

$140

Cost of replica jerseys

 

$450

Cost of same ultra-lightweight jersey Canadian players will be wearing

 

448

Weight in grams, making it 15 per cent lighter than the Vancouver 2010 Olympic jersey

 

17

The number of recycled plastic water bottles each jersey is made from

 

5

Number of recycled bottles used to make socks

 

1920

The source of inspiration — the Canadian team that won gold at the Antwerp, Belgium Summer Olympics in 1920