Canada's Olympic-wear provider given 'coal' medal for environmentally unfriendly manufacturing process

This is a column by Shireen Ahmed, who writes opinion for CBC Sports. For more information about CBC's Opinion section, please see the FAQ.

The athlete parade is always my favourite part of the Olympics and Paralympics. Not for the excessive nationalism but for seeing athletes from all over the world and learning about burgeoning sports in different places.

East Timor, Madagascar, India and Eritrea all have skiers competing in Beijing. I enjoy all the athletes beautifully dressed in their cultural dresses and winter fashion inspired by their home countries, their traditions and their histories.

Kimberly Newell (Zhou Jiaing) is a Canadian-born hockey player who is the starting goalie for China. Newell collaborated with Chris Joswiak of Brian's Source For Sports in Windsor, Ont. They brought her vision of Chinese Dragon-themed goalie pads to life. It is stunning.

In October, the Team Canada uniform kit for the Beijing Olympics was revealed. I was relieved that Hudson's Bay Company was not part of the kits because of its brutal history against Indigenous people in Canada.

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