This will be the official thread for all things Canadian at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. I will attempt to post my thoughts every day on how the Canadians are doing.

Our first Gold! Jennifer Heil in Women's Moguls. Two other Canadians in the top 8 too!

Hope you'all don't mind me barging in here as someone who is a big supporter of Canada too. Getting ready to watch the Canadian womens hockey team play Italy here in about 15 minutes on CNBC, which is a weird station to carry it, but oh well. I want to see the Canadian/US women in the finals, so will be rooting for Canada here!

I'm sure there will be a USA-Canada women's gold medal game. There's virtually no chance of any other team making it. Team Canada just finished off Italy 16-0, outshooting the Italians 66-5. Why isn't there a mercy rule?

Regarding Canada's 16-0 victory over Italy, the Italian coach was quoted as saying (and I'm not making this up): "We were outplayed."

I know, what else could be said, but the quote made me laugh.

~Adam

We've had a few medal favourites flop and still only have the one gold, but at least so far today we are having our best day with 3 medals. Two silvers in team speed skating and one bronze in ladies skeleton. That moves us up to a total of 7 medals overall which puts us 5th behind the leading Norwegians with 13, the Germans and Russians tied for second with 10 each and the Americans in 4th with 9.

Of course if you go by number of golds to determine standings and use the Silver and bronze medal standings as tie breakers, then the US leads with 6 Gold and Norway and Canada are down in 9th and 10th place respectively.

I like the sound of 5th better, so I'll go with that. wink

[ February 17, 2006, 11:38 AM: Message edited by: Travelpat ]

Tell you what right now the Canadians are beating up Germany in hockey, as its 3-0 Canada after 1 period. wink Anybody else thing Ray Ferraro is kinda hot? I sure do. eek!

***** POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT ******

If you want to watch the men's figure skating coverage tonight on NBC and have not heard the results of the men's free skate - stop reading now..


We (Canada) still just the one gold - but a 4 medal day with Buttle adding a bronze in figure skating, to the three medals we won earlier today! Up to 8 medals in total now pulling to within one medal of the USA.

Solid day for Canada at the Olympics. Silver in both men's and women's speed skating team pursuit. A bronze in women's skeleton. And a bronze for Jeffrey Buttle.

I was impressed by Jeffrey, because I don't think he's the best skater in the world (and is not on par with past Canadian greats like Stojko, Browning or Orser), but he skated well (2nd overall in the long program) and didn't choke like Emmanuel Sandhu (who, along with Jeremy Wotherspoon, is part of the All Chokers Team Canada). A solid 12th for Shaun Sawyer, our #3 skater, a guy with some potential, I think.

Lemme guess, in Canada they showed the figure skating LIVE, as if it was an actual sporting event!

In Canada they cut into hockey to show the men's figure skating. The Canada-Germany game was moved to TSN (in the third period, I think) so that CBC could show the figure skating live.

We take our figure skating seriously in Canada.

[ February 16, 2006, 03:59 PM: Message edited by: canmark ]

I'm with you on Ray Ferraro, ny friend. Considering that other hockey player you & I both swoon over, I have to say you have excellent taste.

~Adam

While figure skating is HUGE in Canada, the only reason CBC carried it live was because Canada was blowing out Germany in the hockey game. Had it been a close game, they would have had to air it on tape delay IMMEDIATELY following the hockey game.

To get a good understanding of how big Figure Skating is...everyone in the newsroom here gathered around the TV to see Buttle's skate and the two others that followed him...followed by a cheer when Buttle won Bronze.

Gotta love Canada...except the temperature today... -47 Celcius (with windchill)...-52.6 Farenheit for you American folk.

Another STELLAR day for Canada. Bronze in Women's snowboard cross and then we almost swept all three medals in Men's skeleton with 1st, 2nd and 4th place finishes. So that is three medals today to add to our four yesterday.

We are now up to 11 medals in total. Tied for second with Germany and Russia, behind only the Norwegians 13 and now one medal AHEAD of the USA!

Go Canada Go!

Skeleton winner Duff Gibson is a Calgary firefighter who trains at the Canada Olympic Park facilities, and became the oldest Canadian ever to win a gold medal at any Olympics. Gibson is 39 (so OLD eek! ) As Travelpat pointed out, Canada almost swept the podium in this event.

Canada's female athletes have especially done very well at the Torino Games, having won 7 of the 11 medals thus far. One of those medals was won by cross-country skier Sara Renner, who was handed a replacement for a broken ski pole by a Norwegian official. Kudos to Norway (which was participating in the same event and ended up in fourth place) for a classy gesture which exemplifies the true spirit of the Olympics!

Interesting tidbit: Vancouver-born skier Dale Begg-Smith won the gold medal in Men's Moguls...but for Australia, not Canada, and no that's not a typo: AustrALia, not Austria. At 21, he is already a multi-millionaire. Apparently Begg-Smith didn't like the restrictions of the Canadian training schedule, so he moved to Australia and won that country's first medal in Torino.

And speaking of Australia, since Outsports tends to be North America-centric and the IOC is Euro-centric, I think it is worth acknowledging the participation of countries which one does not normally associate with winter sports. Although only 23 nations have actually won medals (I refuse to use the phrase 'have medalled'...'medal' is a noun, not a verb! :mad: ) there are something like 80 countries participating in the XX Winter Games, including Senegal, Ethiopia, Morocco and Brazil.

Hey Marc - not only is he the oldest Canadian to ever win a gold medal. he is the oldest person ever, from ANYWHERE to win a Winter Olympic Gold in an individual sport. Amazing!

Duff Gibson is majorly hot, too. And he's a firefighter. I wonder if he's in one of those calendars... wink



In men's hockey, Switzerland now leading Canada 2-0 in the second period. eek!

[ February 18, 2006, 08:47 PM: Message edited by: canmark ]

Terrible day for Canada.

Men's hockey team loses 2-0 to Switzerland.

Men's and women's curling teams lose to inferior opponents, Italy and Japan, respectively.

As expected, Jeremy Wotherspoon failed in the 1,000m.

Men's and women's short track speed skaters failed to qualify for the finals.

Erik Guay was in 3rd in the Super G until the final skier (the great Herman Maier), and ended up fourth.

Leave it to the reliable veterans to produce:

Peter Lueders and Lascelles Brown take silver in the 2-man bobsled.

Cindy Klassen wins a speed skating silver in the 1,000m, her third in Torino (silver in team pursuit, bronze in 3,000m).

-----------------

Men's hockey: Canada trails Finland 0-2 after the first period.

If Canada loses to the Czechs (which seems inevitable now), will they even make the playoff?

Canada is already in the medal round. The games Tuesday will determine the quarterfinal matchups.

Rather stunning final score for Canada/Finland game. Somebody needs to figure out how to break the Fins system, and soon. Hard to believe that all that firepower shut down for two games now, 2 shutouts in a row. Unthinkable. Its not over yet, but it should be an interesting next round to say the least!

[ February 19, 2006, 02:57 PM: Message edited by: hockeyTom ]

Unless I am wrong, it appears the Sweden/Canada Womens hockey game is live now on the east coast and being taped out here on the west coast. WE have to wait until 1:00 pt for this game.

The women's gold medal game starts at 2:30 pm ET on NBC. They've been on Olympic coverage since 1 pm here. So my guess is you'll see the same Olympic coverage starting at 1 and the hockey game at 2:30.

SPOILER ALERT*******************************

Canada beat Sweden !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gold medal for our women !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congratulations to you guys. The game is still being aired out here on tape, but good job women of Canada!!

Cindy Klassen, Canadian long track speed skating star, wins her fourth medal at the Torino Olympics, picking up gold in the 1,500m, with teammate Kristina Groves picking up the silver.

Chandra Crawford takes gold in the cross-country skiing sprint (1.1km).

Alas, Shannon Kleibrink's women's curling team lost to Switzerland in the semis, and will play for the bronze medal next.

Canada-Russia in men's hockey up next, at 2:30pm EST.

Two Spokane connections for me in this Russia/Canada game. Referee Dennis LaRue is a Spokane born boy, and Brain McCabe of Canada is a former ( Spokane) Chief. Go Canada Go!!

Although we lost Mens Hockey, Canada has to date matched our best performance medal wise in the Winter Olympics. Everything from now on is gravy. We really can't complain about our athletes (but we undoubtably will....and we will quietly mourn our loss in mens hockey).

[ February 22, 2006, 02:34 PM: Message edited by: swiminbuff ]

I posted a similar comment to this over in the hockey thread, but to repeat here I'm one of those who looks at today as a GREAT day for Canada, in spite of the failure of the men's hockey team. They were a tough team for me to support from the minute they gave Bertuzzi a roster spot, and their uninspired play through most of their games over in Turin gave me no reason to ever really rally behind them.

Well done to all the other Canadians who have been doing so AMAZINGLY well over there. Tied for third in total medals with the USA. And who knows how many close calls we have had, with I believe over ten 4th place finishes now in various sports. So this is one of our best games ever and really gives us reason to be excited about what might happen when we have home field advantage in 2010.

[ February 22, 2006, 02:42 PM: Message edited by: Travelpat ]

Do you think the press In Canada will write anything up there about that gambling distraction and any effect it may have had on the hockey team as well? Or will all the blame go on Quinn?

I think some people will try to put the blame on the gambling scandal, but I suspect some in Toronto in particular will start to go after Quinn. I think the gambling scandal is a red herring considering the level of the team's play seemed to get worse as the games went on, days after all intense gambling scandal coverage had sort of run its course.

To me over the last four games - where the Canadian team did not score in 11 of 12 periods - (who would have thought they would have a stat like that) - it just looked like the Canadian players could not get anything going on the larger ice surface. Perhaps that is part of the the reason the Americans are sitting on the sidelines now too. The Europeans play for all the medals on the size surface that they all grew up playing on.

i feel bad for Brodeur and that's about it.

I read about this today.

Regarding the Canadian hockey team's failure and other athletes' successes, the headline on the Vancouver Province: "Two golds, two silvers, one doh!" alongside a picture of Homer Simpson wearing a Team Canada shirt, slapping his forehead. wink

Wow! Clara Hughes (at age 33) has won gold for Canada in the women's gruelling 5,000-metre speed-skating, in just under seven minutes. The silver medal was won by Claudia Pechstein of Germany, and the bronze went to our most decorated athlete, Cindy Klassen, who has now won five medals at the Torino games. Incidentally, Clara Hughes is one of only four athletes in the world who have won medals at both Summer and Winter Games (she has one for cycling in Atlanta '96 and had already won a bronze in speed-skating in Salt Lake '02).

I don't think I've seen any comments for anyone here about the appearance/style of the actual medals being awarded. To me they are not very attractive at all, and look like blank compact-disks rather than medals (especially the silver medal). Apparently at the Winter Olympics (but not at the Summer Games) the host city organizers have freedom to design the medals as they choose.

[ February 25, 2006, 10:41 AM: Message edited by: Marc ]

I don't think i've ever seen an athlete as happy to win gold as Clara Hughes was. I think the huge smile is permanent now.

Wow! What a great Olympics for Canada!

It looks we end up in third place with a total of 24 medals. By far our best results ever! In fact we are just one medal short of the Canadian Olympic Committee's prediction of 25, which almost everybody thought was way too optimistic before the games started. And with three more fourth place finishes today, that gives us a total of 13 fourth place finishes in the Games. It used to be we would be happy with 10 medals and a handful of other top ten finishes. To have 24 medals and 13 fourth place finishes is just amazing!

And even our HBC designed uniforms - especially the furry hats - have been getting rave reviews over in Turin and the hats turned out to be the 'must have' fashion item of the Games. Just a great two weeks for the Canadian team in spite of the failure of the men's hockey team!

Can't wait for 2010 now when we get home ice advantage for everything. We'll certainly do WAY better than the last time we hosted the Olympics. Believe it or not in 1988 at Calgary we only won 5 medals in total, 2 silver and 3 bronze. Puts into perspective just how great the Turin results are for Canada.

Pat

[ February 25, 2006, 02:19 PM: Message edited by: Travelpat ]

Actually, my friend, in an earlier thread I commented on the medal design. They are to look like a piazza (as I said in that post, not the self-admitted heterosexual baseball catcher) symbolizing Torino. They reminded me of bagel chips!

Just heard that Cindy Klassen won another medal today--the bronze in the women's 5000--to make her the most-medalled athlete at these games.

~Adam

This was an excellent Olympics for Team Canada. Third most total medals (24, the highest ever), including 7 gold (tied for 5th). A very impressive feat leading into the next games on our home turf: Vancouver 2010

Canadian athletes did great and we should all be very proud of how they performed and how they behaved. Best ever medal count, first Canadian athlete to win 5 medals in a single Olympics, medals in 10 out of 15 sports. Great job all around and a great boost for Vancouver 2010.

It took me awhile to find your post, Adam (I had assumed it was recent, and in one of the Olympics threads but was in the main Hockey forum on Dec 30). Bagel chips, eh? Yeah, I can see that, it certainly sounds more tasty than a CD! Keeping with the food theme, and an appropriate Italian one at that, I think a case can be made for the medals being in the shape of a 'pizza' just as easily as a 'piazza'.

Pizza medals would have been great! Makes me hungry! I'm looking forward to Vancouver...cried like a baby when Torino had to extinguish flame tonight.

Congratulations to our Canadian athletes, coaches and support staff on our best ever Winter Olympics! And congratulations to all Olympic athletes from all countries who together made this an amazing and exciting celebration of sport.

I've been glued to the TV for the past two weeks and my roommate had to use paint thinner to peel me off the television screen wink !

It was very sad to see the Olympic flag lowered and the flame extinguished but while the flame won't burn for another four years, the Olympic flag arrives in Vancouver later today!

See you all in 2010!

Rex

And I'll miss the beavers Gord and Frank from all the Bell ads. That is one of the best ad campaigns I have seen in a while. They even have their own website www.frankandgordon.ca.

Unlike all the other companies' Olympic ads that just became very repetitive those Bell ads were just so silly and so well done that they had me giggling for two weeks straight. My roommate and I even chuckled out loud at their related full page print ad in the Star this morning where they were wearing shirts that were supposed to spell 'BRAVO', but because they were standing in the wrong order said 'VOBRA'.