Is it the Ice Age for Olympic Women's Hockey?

The Canadian Women's Ice Hockey team isn't done celebrating when the party poopers are out to burst their balloon. Not soon after their buoyant on ice celebration (not too long after the Gold Medal match with the US with all the spectators gone save for media and arena employees), the IOC is investigating them for proper decorum. Hmm. it's not like they went on tour of the USA to rub the win in every American's face. C'mon! And now, Time Magazine reports that Women’s Ice Hockey could be gone as an Olympic sport by the next Winter Olympiad much like the glaciers in the once colder climes of the world. What they are saying is the sport is dominated by Canada and the USA that both outscored its opponents by a ludicrous 88-4 margin in the tournament. Olympic officials also pointed to preliminary round matches where the final tally resembled an American Football game: Canada bludgeoned Slovakia 18-0 and the USA went Friday the 13^th on Russia 13-0.

"There is a discrepancy there, everyone agrees with that," Jacque Rogge told reporters and Time Magazine. "We cannot continue without improvement," he added referring to the development of the sport.”

The international news magazine also noted that the cut Women’s softball from the Olympics in 2005 — its final Olympic games were played in Beijing in 2008 — after being heavily dominated by the USA. The sport recently lost a bid to be reinstated for the 2016 Olympics in Rio. IOC members cited a non-competitive field as the driving factor in its decision. Hockey is safe for the Sochi games in 2014, but if North America wipes out everyone again, the sport's future on the Olympic program will surely be in serious jeopardy.

Guy Joseph Redmond of Michigan wrote in to say that: "It Is Being Announced After The Olympics That It Is Over!!! Unbalanced Competition! Sad!"

My reply is: "Dude, that's not fair to Canada or the US. They should have waited at least after the tournament. Etiquette isn't an Olympic sport but it sure does count for something."

In other Olympic Ice Hockey news, Team USA barged into their own Gold Medal match after dusting off Finland 6-1. They wait for the winner of the Canada-Slovakia semis. Zach Parise!!!

photos by Associated Press