Obama, Stephen Harper bet a case of beer on Olympics hockey games
With the U.S. and Canadian men’s and women’s Olympic hockey teams preparing to square off in Sochi this week for gold medals, President Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper have a lot riding on the outcome.
In a bit of friendly Olympic rivalry that played out on Twitter, the two leaders bet each other a case of beer on the result of each game.
Mr.
Obama tweeted:
.@pmharper and I bet on the women's and men's US-Canada hockey games. Winner gets a case of beer for each game. #GoTeamUSA! -bo
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 20, 2014
I'm betting @barackobama one case of Canadian beer per hockey game this week. #teamusa is good, but #WeAreWinter. #GoCanadaGo @WhiteHouse
— Stephen Harper (@pmharper) February 20, 2014
In
Mexico on Wednesday, Mr. Obama weighed in on the upcoming matches with some
gentle trash-talk. “My brother-in-law is Canadian, so you
know I have to like Canadians,” he said. “Although I will note that I think we
are going to have both the men’s hockey teams and the women’s hockey teams
battling it out. So for a very brief period of time, I may not feel as
warm towards Canadians as I normally do -- at least until those matches are
over.”
The Canadian and U.S. teams have long dominated hockey at the Olympics. Early hopes that the Russian men’s team could secure a shot at the gold in Sochi were dashed on Wednesday, when the Finnish team sent them packing in the quarterfinal round.