The 2010 Winter Olympics in the British Columbian city of Vancouver, Canada, ended remarkably with the host country finishing third. The country had 202 athletes representing Canada in 15 events. Canada attained 26 medals (14 gold, seven silver, and five bronze). Canada’s 14 broke the record of the highest number of gold medals won by a single country in the history of the Winter Olympics.
Medals for the Hosts
Anyone betting on the olympics in 2010 would have been a winner if they chose Canadian teams and athletes. Ashleigh McIvor won the maiden gold medal in ski cross which appeared at the Olympics for the first time ever at the 2010 Vancouver Games.
In the men’s hockey, Canada defeated the United States 3–2 in the gold medal game, thanks to Sidney Crosby who scored a ‘Golden Goal’ in extra time. The Canadian women’s hockey team won all five of their games and outscored their opponents 48–2 in the Vancouver hosted 2010 final. Canada won in both men and women’s hockey games for the second time in three Winter Olympics.
In men’s curling, the Edmonton-based team of lead Ben Hebert, skip Kevin Martin, second Marc Kennedy, third John Morris, and fifth Adam Enright won the Olympic gold. Canada took the gold in this sporting event for the second consecutive time running in the Winter Olympics.
In figure skating, despite the loss of her mother at the onset of the Olympics, Joanie Rochette won Olympic bronze with a remarkable 12.49 points. 22-year-old Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir became the youngest figure skaters to bag Olympic gold in the ice dance event. The team also made Olympic history by becoming the first ice dance team from North America to win Olympic gold.
The Canadian women’s short-track speed-skating team, Marianne St-Gelais, Jessica Gregg, Kalyna Robarge, and Tania Vincent won the silver medal, competing in the women’s 3000m relay. Marianne St-Gelais also won an individual Olympic silver medal for the women’s 500m race. Canadians won four medals in women’s long-track speed-skating: one gold medal, one silver, and two bronze. By just two-hundredths of a second, Christine Nesbitt beat Annette Gerritsen of the Netherlands to win the women’s 1000-meters clocking 1:16.56.
In the men’s 500m in the short-track skating, Charles Hamelin bagged the gold medal, and François-Louis Tremblay took home the bronze. Tremblay became only the third Canadian man to win five medals in the Olympics. These two athletes, alongside François Hamelin, Guillaume Bastille, and Olivier Jean, teamed up to win the men’s 5000m relay. In the speed skating long track team pursuit men’s category, Mathieu Giroux, Denny Morrison, and Lucas Makowsky brought home the gold medal.
In the men’s skeleton event, Jon Montgomery won Canada’s second consecutive gold medal. Canada won its first four-man bobsled medal since the 1964 competition. The team of Lyndon Rush, David Bissett, Lascelles Brown and Chris le Bihan won bronze. In the bobsled women’s event, Heather Moyse and Kaillie Humphries won gold, while Shelley-Ann Brown and Helen Upperton won silver.
In his final major snowboarding competition, Mike Robertson won the Olympic silver medal in men’s snowboard cross. More Olympic history was made, as the then 34-year-old Jasey-Jay Anderson became the world’s oldest gold medalist in the history of Olympic snowboarding to win the men’s parallel giant. In the women’s snowboarding cross, Maëlle Ricker took the top prize. This was a first, as no Canadian had won gold in Olympic events held in the country before.