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:

 
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.