Fair Play Rewards for Norway

Yoostabee, I got excited for the start of the baseball season. But between too much fantasy baseball and too much performance enhancement, I've grown jaded. And while I hope for the Twins to do well, it's also good to see good sportsmanship thriving in other sports.

As I wrote back in February, one of the high points of the Olympics was an incident in the women's cross country sprint relay. As Canadian Sara Renner ascended a tough hill midway through the race, a competitor accidentally stepped on Renner's pole, breaking it. Watching the video, you can see Renner's face convey surpise, disgust, and panic, all at once. But unhesitatingly, Bjoernar Haakensmoen, a Norwegian coach who was standing nearby, handed Renner a new pole, enabling her to keep up with the leaders and hand off to her teammate in a good position. Canada went on to take the silver; Norway finished out of the medals in fourth. This week, after much praise of the Norwegian's sense of fair play, Canada thanked Norway with - what else? - a hell of a lot of maple syrup:

Grateful Canadians have given five tonnes of maple syrup to a Norwegian coach as thanks for helping cross-country skier Sarah Renner win an Olympic silver medal after her pole broke during the women's team sprint race.

"It was a reflex action. I didn't even think about what I was doing," Haakonsmoen told Reuters on Wednesday after a ceremony at the Canadian embassy in Oslo to hand over a truckload of 7,400 cans of maple syrup donated as sugary thanks.

Thousands of cans will be handed out to Norwegians around the country.

Sweet.