No Place Like Home

Even allowing for the gloss of the TV coverage, one of the most memorable aspects of the 2010 Winter Olympics is the degree to which family tales found their way into the narrative of the Canadian team and its record-breaking performance.

There was Joannie Rochette’s mesmerizing tribute to her dead mother, and Alexandre Bilodeau’s inspiring relationship with his brother, Fredrick, stricken by cerebral palsy. We saw other siblings competing side by side—the Hamelins in speed skating and the legally blind cross-country skier Brian McKeever being guided by his formidably athletic brother Robin. With Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, the ice dancing gold medalists, their parents worked diligently together for years, providing the financial and logistical support their kids needed to make it to the podium.

The media feasted off these heartwarming accounts, but that exposure does not make them less real. After all, high-performance athletes function within a grid of...