And the games end with a bang.
Or rather an overtime goal by Sidney Crosby.
The much hyped game of the United States and Canada for ice hockey goal was everything everyone expected to be though probably a bit too nerve racking for most Canadians as it went into overtime.
Overall, this was been a most satisfying Olympics for Canadians. No, Canada did not own the podium but it won more medals than ever before in a Winter Games and won more gold medals than any games to date. In the medal standings, 26 medals ranked the country third behind the United States and Germany. So the efforts of the past six years to nurture an elite class of athletes to bring home as medals as possible should be deemed a success.
Of course, it did not looked like that at the end of the second weekend of the games when the country had just won 10 medals and saw many potential medalists come up short. But in the final week, Canada turned it on and started to rack up medals with a gold medal nearly every night to the final day of the Games.
So ends too my intense obsession with all things Olympian and the performance of the Canadian athletes. Most of my time was following the results of every competition, seeing how the Canadians did, read articles and posts on all aspects of the Games. Now, things will have to go back to the ways things were which is such a less than exciting life.
There were many memorable moments for me from these games:
- Joanie Rochette’s return to the ice after experiencing such tragedy in her life
- Jon Montromery’s run down the sliding track in the men’s skeleton race and his pure Canadian post medal reaction in winning
- Clara Hughes ending her Olympian career in style with a bronze medal in the women’s 5000m speedskating race. She is one of Canada’s most foremost Olympians with medals in Summer and Winter Games over 14 years and includes a gold medal in her specialty race.
- Jasey Jay Anderson finally winning his medal, gold at that too, after so many Olympics of not being able to succeed in reaching podium
- The Korean wipeout in the men’s 1500m short track race. The Koreans were poised to sweep but a bad turn knocked two of them out of the medals.
- Cross-country skiing having such a great venue for some thrilling races.
- The beauty of Moir and Virtue in the ice dance competition
- and finally the men’s hockey gold medal final.
So now the countdown begins for the Summer Games in 2012 in London. Canada has been declining somewhat as a Summer Games power as most of the sporting resources of the country has been dedicated to a strong performance in the Winter Games. Perhaps it is time to put together a program to improve Canada’s Summer Games performance though Canada can never own the podium in the Summer Games given the number of resources that the major sporting powers can dedicate to their athletes.
Much has been made of Canada’s bold statement to Own the Podium, to be the top team in the medal standings. But as we know, it was known by the mid point of the Games that the goal was going to be unattainable. Many medal favorites failed to live up to their medal expectations and ended up in the fourth or fifth positions, on the outside looking in at the podium.
For athletes not winning a medal in their events is something to be expected at all Olympic Games and it should have been anticipated by most people who follow the Olympics. What has not happened much for Canada at these games is the surprise medalists which Canada had been leaning on for the past few Olympics to give them that extra boost in the medal standings when Canadians start worrying about how the team is performing.
Of course, the United States team has had an outstanding Olympics winning medals across several disciplines which accounted for their insurmountable lead in the games.
But there are standards for measuring success rather than overall medal count. Some countries go by the number of medals they win, especially gold, in a discipline which they traditionally dominate such as South Korea in short track speedskating or Norway in cross-country skiing.
The other standard is total number of gold medals won overall.
There has been many measurements of how many silvers equate to a gold and then how many bronzes equate to a silver or a gold. Some countries prefer to have more medallists even if they are silver or bronze. Others prefer to just have the best athletes at an event; in this case second place does not do.
Associated Press gives weight on the relative importance of one medal compared to another or rather placement of athletes in terms of points. AP gives 10 points to a gold, 5 to silver, 3 to bronze, 2 to fourth place and 1 point to fifth place. So in this case, 2 silvers do equal a gold and 3 bronzes almost equal a gold.
Nonetheless, a country can claim by the number of gold medals it wins that it has more elite athletes than any other.
So it is that Canada now will set its goal from these games as the country with the most gold medals. It is a bit of a change from what the country started off as its ultimate goal of most medals but it is not a radical shift. To get the most medals at a Games, the nation should also be leading or close to leading in total gold medals too.
Coming into Saturday’s events, Canada does lead in total gold medals with 10 but it is a tentative lead. Norway, Germany and the United States are just one gold medal behind and all three countries have events which they can place a gold medalist.
Canada does have opportunities to win additional gold medals in men’s hockey, men’s speed skating team pursuit and men’s curling. In two of those events, Canada faces the United States so Canada has some control of how the gold medals will be won between the two nations.
Still, with three guaranteed medals to come, total medal count for Canada will be at least 24 medals which ties the Torino games for most medals won in a Winter Games. But more importantly, 10 gold medal ties the most gold medals won by Canada in any games, which was in the 1984 Los Angeles games, boycotted by the Eastern Communist bloc nations.
Events:
- Alpine – Men’s Slalom
- Boblsled – Men’s 4-man sled
- Crosscountry – Men’s 50km (Sunday) Women’s 30km
- Curling – Men’s Final
- Hockey- Men’s Final (Sunday)
- Snowboarding – Men’s Parallel Slalom
- Speedskating – Men’s Team Pursuit, Women’s Team Pursuit
Canadian Medal Hopes
The final weekend of the Winter Games are upon us and the last big events of the games will be on this weekend.
Like the Summer Games with the men’s marathon on the final day, there is an endurance race, the Men’s 50km cross country race. There is also the marquee team event, Men’s hockey final featuring for what NBC believes is the dream match up of Canada versus United States. That game will be on nearly ever television set in Canada.
But there are events going on featuring Canadians in good medal positions.
The Men’s speedskating team will go for gold in the team pursuit race. In their heats, they have been putting up extraordinary times and they will go up against the United States team who beat the favorited Netherlands team. If the Canadian men win gold, that would help make up for a a shocking loss by the women’s team in their qualifying heat.
The Canada-1 sled driven by Lyndon Rush sits in second place going into the final run, fighting with Germany-1 sled for appears to be the silver medal. Much like the Canada-1 sled in the women’s two-man sled, the USA-1 sled seems to have found a groove that will allow them to keep and build upon their wide lead against all other sleds.
Kevin Martin is going for gold in the curling final. He has been dominant throughout the tournament and he should preserve.
In snowboarding, Jasey Jay Anderson will try to win Olympic medal. He has been a dominant force in snowboarding for years but flamed out entirely in the Torino games. He enters the event as potential medalist which if previous snowboarding events are any indication, the favorites have typically done well in the events.
Events
- Alpine – Womens Giant Slalom
- Boblsed – Women’s Two man Sled
- Cross Country – Men’s 4×10km Relay
- Freestyle – Women’s Aerials
- Short Track – Men’s 500m, Women’s Relay, Women’s 1000m
- Speedskating – Women’s 5000m
After an emotional day where Joanie Rochette managed to put the nation on pause for a moment as she danced the short program for the women’s figure skating. the Olympics move on to Day 13 of the program.
Canadian Medal Hopes
Quite a few events on the schedule today. Medal hopes abound for Canada if the team lives up to expectations.
First off is the Women’s 5000m event in speedskating. Clara Hughes won this event four years ago in Torino but it is unlikely that she will win a medal this year let alone the gold. The same applies for Cindy Klassen. Once again, the burden lies on Kristin Groves to succeed once more and for the past few seasons she has been competitive at this event. Silver or bronze is within her grasp.
Short Track speedskating has just one medal event along with event heats. Canada has virtually won a medal in every Olympics for the women’s relay. The Chinese and Korean squads will be fighting for gold but once again, in short track, you never know what happens.
Women’s bobsled looks good for a medal so far with the Canada 1 sled atop the run standings and Canada 2 sled in a pack of sleds fighting for the bronze medal position.
The dark horse medal hope of the day is the men’s relay event in cross country skiing. Team members have come agonizing close to a medal in several events this Olympics. The tradition powers in the event like Norway, Russia, and Italy will be there but there is always hope that if the Canadian team can take advantage of a slipup by the other teams, it may be the break they need.
But all of those medal hopes are secondary to the big event on the calendar tonight as Canada faces Russia in hockey quarterfinal. Both teams were touted for the gold medal final but now one of them will come up far short.
With a hopeful sign as the day end, this most black of weekends for Canadian medal hopes come to an end.
So much promise of success turned out to be so much shattered dreams. Near certain medal hopes turned out to be illustionary. Canada managed only one silver medal for all its efforts but it could have done much more.
Perhaps the skeleton races on Friday night was a dire foreshadowing of what was at hand when Canada lost two strong medal hopes in the women’s and men’s races. Still those sort of events happen. No one is guaranteed a medal at the Olympics but when so many medal hopefuls go down in quick succession, you wonder if Canada is jinxed in some what.
Of course, Canada is not alone feeling this way. The Russians are incensed at the poor performance of their team and the Norwegians are at a lost why so many of their star biathlon and cross country skiers are not living up to their medal expectations. But who cares? I am Canadian and how Canada does is what matters to me.
Some losses are more relevant than others. The speedskating teams are underperforming compared to past Olympics. In short-track, Canadian are making the finals but can not get the past other skaters especially the dominating Koreans.
In long track skating, Denny Morrison is becoming the Jeremy Wotherspoon of this Olympics. While they have produced 3 medals so far, the women’s team is just barely hanging in there. One theory why the team is not getting the results expected is that the team trained for the wrong venue. Training in Calgary at altitude is much different than performing at sea level which Richmond is located. The Dutch skaters which are doing much better than expected live in a country which is virtually at sea level everywhere. In some way, the Dutch are making amends for 2006 where they performed relatively poorly against their country’s expectations because of the altitude of Torino.
A strong start in the men’s two man boblsled ended up crashing on the second run.
Chris Del Bosco was a strong medal favorite for the men’s skicross event. Leading up to the finish, he was solidly in third place but his desire to push for gold cost him a medal. Perhaps, it is better to strive for the top and fail rather than settle for a lesser prize but it would to have a medal in any column for Canada on this day.
Of course, the kicker was the hockey team’s lost to the United States 5-3. Now, there is a silver lining to this particular scenario. One is that it essential for the team to play another game together. Frankly, this is a team in need of extra work for it to start congealing as the team that everyone expects it to be which it really hasn’t yet in the games against Switzerland and the United States. First up will be Germany.
But in the gloom, a bit of light as the Ice Dancing team of Virtue and Moir put in a top performance that puts them in medal contention for the free skate for Monday night.
As well, there were some performances that were noteworthy for the team’s effort. The men’s cross country team did quite well placing 3 men in the top 10 for the 30km event. This could mean great placing in the team relay and sprint events to come.
Canadian Notable Placements:
Women’s Speedskating 1500m: Kristin Groves Silver
Men’s Two Man Boblsled: Canada 2 (Leuders/Lumsden) 5th
Throughout these games I have been using a variety of websites to keep me informed on all of the day proceedings, the stories behind the games and all of the trivial aspects of the games. Considering that I am not in Vancouver to give first hand knowledge of what is happening, this is the best I can do.
The first stop for me is the NBC Olympics web site (www.nbcolympics.com). As one of the biggest stakeholders in the games through its $800 million television rights coverage, they have made every effort to use the website to help drive viewership of the television channels on which they sell their advertising. Bio backgrounds, interactive flash for site venues, video galore, the site provides all the information that a casual follower of the sports can become knowledgeable about the sport and its top performers. It is American team centric of course but there is quite a diversity of countries athletes as well in particular Canada as many of the sports which the United States expects to win medals, their strongest competitors are usually Canadians. Finally, there is plenty of background articles and video extolling the virtues and few vices of Vancouver and the surrounding areas, plenty to make the site almost a travel site for British Columbia.
For a Canadian perspective, the CTVGlobeMedia group through the Globe and Mail website (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/) and the CTV network(http://www.ctvolympics.ca/). Not quite as deep as the NBC site but provides what everyone expects of an Olympic site these day. However, parts of the site including all of the video is of limits to non-Canadian based viewers. This is because of the rights issues all broadcasters have over their material and that it can not be seen outside of their national boundaries.
Around this sort of event, various media sites step up their coverage of winter sports and provide articles from all points of view and all of the Games. Some of the sites like ESPN (http://espn.go.com/olympics/) and Sports Illustrated (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/olympics/2010/) use a mixture of local reporting and wire services. But generally they do not provide much additional insight on an event itself but rather finding their strength on some of the opinion pieces on the games and on the athletes themselves.
The standard news sites like the New York Times and USA Today provide a substantial presence on the ground in Vancouver as befitting newspapers with a national audience and that shows on their sports section on their websites.
Finally, I have been a fan of Yahoo Sports Fourth Place Medal (http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancouver/blog/fourth_place_medal) which provides opinions posts, video clips, trivial type of posts (like best uniforms) and so forth much in the style of Yahoo’s other sport blogs.
No doubt there are plenty of other sites with different perspectives especially blogs that focus on a particular sport like speedskating or an athlete like Shaun White but I do not have the time to follow them all.
Events:
- Alpine Skiing : Women’s Super G
- Bobsled: Men’s Two Man
- Cross Country – Men’s 30km
- Short Track – Men’s 1000m, Women’s 1500m
- Ski Jumping – Large Hill
- Speed Skating – Men’s 1500m
Canadian Medal Hopes:
Right now, Canada is a bit behind the expectations pace at this point in the Games but can do itself a tremendous favour by succeeding in a few events that Canada is noted for its strengths.
Short Track speedskating has two medal events tonight. Canada is expected to gain only one possible medal chance tonight in the men’s 1500m event. This event is getting quite a bit of attention as United States skater, Apollo Ohno is trying to set the record for most medals in the Winter Olympic games. He is not supposed to expect a medal in the event either. In fact, the event is expected to more of a South Korean sweep much like the men’s 1000m was shaping up to be on the last turn until the Korean skaters crashed out. This is short track so anything can happen.
Long track speedskating, being a more temperamental discipline will not have the excitement that short track has but Canada has perhaps a better chance with that event to win a medal. Denny Morrison has been winning this event for several years, usually in tandem with Shani Davis of the United States. However, it has been observed from the 1000m event that he did not seem to be his old self. Can he put himself in the right mental frame to compete in this event. That will be seen tonight.
The big event on the calendar today is the women’s Super G event. Lindsay Vonn is the expected winner of the event. Canadians have at best, an outside chance as American, German and Swiss skiers will be the most competitive.
Day 8 of the Olympics brought triumph and disappointment for Canada all in the sport of skeleton. Jon Mongomery won gold in the Men’s skeleton event with a determined effort to first narrow the gap between him and Martin Dukurs of Latvia and to surpass him by 0.07 seconds. This make Canada a repeat winner in this event. Still, this triumph was tempered by the failure of Melissa Hollingsworth to hold onto her second place after the third run and Mike Douglas disqualification for not removing his sleds covers. A sport that gave Canada 3 medals in Torino only gave up one. Needless to say, this does put Canada’s goal of topping the medal count in jeopardy.
Given the relatively light schedule of the day, the other significant placing for Canada was in the Men’s Alpine Super G event where Erik Guay came fifth just a few thousandths out of a medal.
Canadian Notable Placements:
Men’s Alpine Super G: Erik Guay 5th
Men’s Skeleton: Jon Montgomery Gold
Women’s Skeleton: Melissa Hollingsworth 5th
