The Canadian women’s ice hockey team had high hopes of taking home gold at the Winter Olympics, so, understandably, they were downtrodden after falling to bitter rival, Team USA, 2-1, in overtime on Friday (AEDT).
Cameras captured the string of disappointed faces in the ceremony as they were awarded their silver medals.
However, most cracked a polite smile and did their best to hide their emotions.
That is, until organisers then went along and presented each with a miniature version of the Olympic mascot, a white stoat named Tina.
Several players are seen looking down at the plushie in almost disgust, with their reactions quickly going viral, most notably Daryl Watts, who was caught staring down at the stuffed toy in disgust before sighing and looking off into the distance, holding back tears.
You can watch the players’ reactions to the plushies in the player above.
And while the reactions of the players went viral, many felt the tradition was a tad cruel and that they should have been left to grieve while Team USA had their moment.
“Losing in OT then getting handed a consolation plushie on live ice is nasty work,” one fan wrote on X. ‘Let them grieve in peace.’
“The soft toy tradition has gone too far. Read the room,” another said.
“Ouch, that’s a rough way to celebrate a silver medal,” a third wrote.
“Team Canada deserved a bit more respect after that intense overtime battle.”
While others commented, “every eye roll gets better” and “you almost have to laugh at that point”.
But receiving stuffe
d animals is nothing new.
Typically, any Olympic medal winners receive some form of miniature stuffed toy, usually of that year’s Olympic mascot.
However, even an adorable plushie doesn’t help numb the pain after coming painfully close to a maiden Winter Olympics gold medal.
Canada’s defeat was its eighth straight international loss to Team USA, which has now won three Olympic gold medals in women’s hockey.
A tough pill to swallow for the Canadians.
