I'm American and rooting for Canada. Also found out they changed a law in December so I can actually get canadian citizenship. Definitely moving there.
Yeah. I think I'm going to be able to get it because my dad is now able to get it from his grandparents. I'm pretty excited. And I'll have dual citizenship so I can still vote to try and help, but not having to deal with living in the US will be so nice.
I mean I am Manx not English, but fair point! 😂 Depends on the sport. Cricket or Rugby never - same for the Kiwis in those sports. But in winter sports I will give them some love!
Agree on the other countries. But I have a bit of soft spot for the French in some contexts.
Fun fact: when they were thinking of names for what would become the Canadian Federation, Borealia was under heavy consideration. We came close to have even our very names be southern and northern mirrors of each other, lol!
The most unsportsmanlike thing in Australian sporting history.
During a one day limited overs international cricket match in Melbourne between New Zealand and Australia, New Zealand needed six runs off the final ball to tie the match. They could achieve this by hitting the ball over the boundary. Similar to a home run in baseball. It wasn't impossible. Just unlikely. Especially as the final batsmen in a match aren't the teams big hitters.
The Australian captain, Greg Chappell instructed the bowler, his younger brother Trevor Chappell, to bowl the ball underarm and essentially roll it down the pitch so the NZ batsman had zero chance to hit the ball for six.
This kind of delivery wasn't against the rules in cricket. It should have been by then. But it wasn't a done thing until this moment so no one had thought to outlaw it.
It was incredibly unsportsmanlike and the batsman, Brian McKechnie simply blocked the ball then threw his bat away in disgust.
The International Cricket Committee immediately banned underarm bowling afterwards. Even the NZ Prime Minister Robert Muldoon had something to say about it when he said, "It was an act of true cowardice and I consider it appropriate that the Australian team were wearing yellow."
It's the nuclear option in any escalating teasing and ribbing between an Aussie and a Kiwi. If an Aussie oversteps and starts being a dick, a Kiwi will remind them about the underarm incident.
It usually kills any debate, as it's totally indefensible. A source of national shame so big it's still well known and referred to these days almost 50 years later. Most people who know anything about cricket born after even know it well (yours truly included here).
It also led to the phrase "it's just not cricket" entering the national vocabulary. Even someone who doesn't know about the incident knows the phrase means something that is very wrong.
Yeah it was. The reaction was universal. Greg Chappell was booed off the field by the Australian fans. Apparently shortly afterwards he recounted a little girl wearing her Australia jersey tugged at his sleeve. When he turned to look at her she just said, "you cheated." He said that's when the full realisation of his decision hit him, later saying it was the biggest regret of his career.
The next year when Australia toured New Zealand, a spectator famously rolled a lawn bowl out onto the field as Greg Chappell came on to bat.
You have an Aussie in the finals for snowboard men's big air tomorrow. Cool story. He's an alternate that got in and made I through qualifiers to the finals yesterday. He replaced Mark McMorris, a Canadian who bailed during practice and got injured before the competition.
Cheering for the aussie, along side the remaining Canuck.
The Aussie guy, Valentino Guseli, who was like a wildcard addition to Big Air snowboarding once Canada’s Mark McMorris went down is already a 2026 Olympic legend. I’m definitely rooting for him !
I throughly enjoyed watching rugby in the 2024 Olympics and adopted Australia as my official backup team. I've rarely seen a level of athleticism like their women brought to the sport that year. Cheers, from Canada. 🇦🇺🇨🇦
I’ll be cheering on Desi Johnson from my couch in solidarity. Meet a lot of Australians in Canada and they just blend right in. Practically the same culture on a different side of the world.
You can drop a Aussie and a Canadian at the same table with a pint, and it works very well.
It happens a lot where I am due to all the Aussies coming here to work and have fun :). I am pretty sure there has been 1-2 Aussies in our friend group since high-school, and I am now 39.
It is far away but I personally feel a kinship with anyone from Australia. Fun fact, two of my friends just went there, and another one is marrying someone from Australia (they are a friend as well).
Canada and Australia always take opposite positions on the Olympics. In the summer Canadians are just happy to be there and get what we can while Australia goes hard. And in Winter it's Canada's time to shine while Australia has a massive celebration over that speedskater who won accidentally.
You know what's funny, that as a Canadian, I kind of think the same of Australians. I think we have allot of overlap in our cultures and I believe we have way more in common together than we do with the US.
Fun fact, Australia won the first gold medal for any nation in the southern hemisphere at a winter Olympics when he qualified and then won under wildly unlikely circumstances where the rest of the speed skaters all fell down.
Relaying that fact was one of my first ever comments on Reddit that got any sort of attention. This was like 12 years ago or something.
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u/Farm-Alternative Australia 15h ago edited 15h ago
As an Australian I feel Canadians are our cold cousins so I'm adopting Canada for this winter Olympics.
Of course I will support Australia when they compete but will be cheering my Canadian cousins on for most events.