Wayne Gretzky was the executive director for Team Canada at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. He headed up the selection committee who was responsible for picking the best players to represent Team Canada. Gretzky had a vision for this team, and that vision was to win gold, anything less would be a disappointment. Team Canada had not won a gold medal at the Olympic Games for fifty years. Canadian hockey fans wanted a win badly. Gretzky made this known to the players he selected. This challenge of putting Canadian hockey back on top created much enthusiasm with the players, especially when the NHL’s all-time point leader, Wayne Gretzky, is personally calling you to let you know that you are going to be a part of Team Canada.
Gretzky became a very important part of Team Canada’s success once they entered the tournament. Team Canada started the tournament of with a very poor start of one win, one loss and one tie during the round robin. In the last game of the round robin against the Czech Republic an incident occurred where Gretzky saw an opportunity to pounce. With little time left in the game a Czech defensemen dished out a brutal cross-check to Theoren Fleury. Following the game Gretzky held a press conference with the media and made a big deal out of it. He was frustrated that there wasn’t a major penalty handed out and the fact that it was a European player that did it, because had it been a Canadian, the reports in the papers the following day would say how Canadians were dirty hockey players. This was the spring board to the rest of Gretzky’s rant. He continued along making claims of a media conspiracy against Canadian hockey and an international dislike for Canadian hockey. He painted the picture that everyone in the world wanted Canada to lose except for Canadians. After Wayne’s tirade, the world’s attention had shifted its focus to him and completely away from his team and players. During this time, Team Canada was able to come together as a unit and refocus on the task at hand and not what everyone else was thinking. They went on to win the gold medal.
Wayne Gretzky stepped up to the plate when his country needed him. He was able diffuse the conflict surrounding Team Canada and let them focus on what they had to do. His leadership in this situation is undeniable and it’s obvious that the coaching staff and players responded.
