Wayne Gretzky, a.k.a. ‘The Great Gretzky’ is probably the greatest player to play the sport. Gretzky played in NHL for two decades before retiring in 1999. Later, he became the Executive Director of the Canadian Ice Hockey team. In the 2002 winter Olympics, when he was an ED with the Canadian team, Gretzky got surrounded by controversies for his aggressive remarks.

The 2002 Olympics was accounted as an emotional Olympic for the Canadian ice hockey team, as they were looking for their first gold medal. As the expectations were high, so was the pressure. Nonetheless, Wayne continued to back himself and his team, regardless of what happened outside their team’s environment. What did Gretzky say after releasing controversial statements?

Wayne Gretzky clarified he didn’t regret what he said:

When Wayne Gretzky used to play on the field, he used to reply to all the questions raised with his game. But when he became the Executive Director, The Great One found some strong words to reply to the criticism. Gretzky said, “I felt like the team was getting bombarded, so I stood up for our team.”

However, according to Gretzky, the Canadian team came with an aim and that added immense pressure on them. Gretzky added, “I’m not here to apologize. I don’t regret what I said.”

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Moreover, after being in America for so long, the comments he made about America weren’t accepted well by the people. However, he rectified that statement the very next day.

What did Wayne denote as ‘American Propaganda’?

In the 2002 Olympic games, the Canadian team were having slow starts in every match. However, they were winning the matches despite the slow starts. And in a game versus the Czech Republic, the Canadian team once again had a slow start but did a decent job chasing the three goals and ending the match 3-3. After the match, Gretzky said, “Americans love our poor start. Nobody wants us to win but our players and our loyal fans. The whole world wants us to lose”.

However, as earlier mentioned, the next day, he clarified the reason behind his anger. He said, “Every time I walked into the arena, I heard a different story. Finally, last night I had enough of it. For whatever reason, these silly rumors were flying around about our hockey team. It really bothered me.” 

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After everything happened, Canada eventually won the gold medal in the 2002 Winter Olympics. Talking about Gretzky, what do you think about his statements in 2002?