In the last days of December, while Canadians were cutting their way through reams of holiday gift wrap (or snoozing their way through televised leaders debates), something remarkable happened in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.
Far from our northern snows, on the shores of the Persian Gulf, in the desert city of Al-Kohbar, in a glass cube surrounded by curious sheiks, Jonathon Power, a Canadian, defeated Anthony Ricketts, an Australian, to become the number one ranked squash player in the world.
It is not the first time that B.C.-born Power has been ranked as the world number one. From July 1999 to July 2001 he held that rank more than any other professional squash player. But nearly five years after sliding off of that lofty peak, after an agonizing run of untimely injuries, at the age of 31, few expected him to reclaim the summit for Canada in December. But he did.
Power's distinguished athletic career is now marked by two extraordinary accomplishments. First, as the holder of nearly forty PSA titles, Power is unquestionably the greatest North American squash player in history. Second, he is the oldest PSA player ever to be ranked number one in the world.
To say that Jonathon Power is to North American squash what Wayne Gretzky (the player, not the manager) was to North American hockey is not an exaggeration. Both men saw the playing surface better than anyone else in their game. Both had amazing eye-hand coordination. Neither was expected to reach the very top of their game. But both did.
Tune in to professional squash podcasts on psalive.tv and watch Power feather drop-shots into the nick from the backcourt and you will be instantly reminded of Gretzky feathering one-timers to Kurri at the top of the circle. In fact, Power is so skilful with a squash racquet that he is often referred to as "the magician from Canada".
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But times change. In a game now dominated by tall and enormously powerful twenty-somethings, Power, the slightly squishy-looking, oddly dressed, always colourful Canadian looks increasingly out of place in the world of professional squash.
He is now and has been the best of the best in North American squash for nearly a decade. But his amazing career is surely nearing its end. There is no one on the horizon capable of replacing him. And few Canadians have ever seen him play.
Such is our single-minded obsession with one sport -- hockey -- that none of our major television broadcasters even bothered to carry the final match of the Saudi International at which Power regained the crown for Canada.
Once or twice nearly every week, we can sit and watch two struggling NHL teams from U.S. cities meet in means-nothing regular reason match-ups on TSN or The NHL Network. But only once in a blue moon do we get to see Jonathon Power play squash on Canadian television.
Even in the realm of "other sports", Power gets little attention from the Canadian media.
Editorial boards of our largest newspapers, for example, were quick to jump to American cyclist Lance Armstrong's defence when he was accused of doping by a European magazine last year, but not a single editorial celebrated Power's amazing comeback victory in Al-Kohbar last month.
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Fortunately, we have the Internet. So anybody with a (free) Real Media player and a high-speed Internet connection can sign up to watch high resolution streams of Power's recent games for about a buck apiece.
And for the seriously motivated (like me), there are always the high-priced -- but high-quality -- DVDs sold through the PSA's official website.
For those Canadians hoping to actually see Power one last time in the flesh, I would advise you not to hold your breath.
The Canadian Squash Invitational, which was to be held in Power's home province in the last four days of 2005 was recently cancelled due to lack of interest. British Columbians apparently don't have room in their lives for both Jonathon Power and Todd Bertuzzi.
So the professional hockey player who mauled a man from behind will go on to Olympic glory next month, while the greatest Canadian athlete in the history of professional squash will play out his career, invisibly, in the sands of the Middle East and among the narrow streets of places like London and Hong Kong.
© Brent Johner. Originally published in the Calgary Herald, January 2006. Reprint rights available.
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