Day 6 - IH013 - Canada v. Sweden

Pam and I had the Women's Canada-Sweden game today out at UBC. I was predicting a close game, but it turned out to be anything but...13-1

That makes the total combined score from the three Canada games 43-1

We started out in our 'real' seats, but Vanoc installed a giant secondary scoreboard right infront of our squashes. Made no sense as to why they were even there...as the main board had more info on it anyways...the main board that was blocked for us.

So, rather than get upset..we just moved down into the high-class seats. We watched the 2nd and 3rd periods four rows behind the Canadian Bench.

Other highlight of the day was walking to the Canada Line...we happened to bump into a Medal-Wearing Frenchman. As it turns out, it was Tony Ramoin, who picked up bronze in the Men's SBX.

Scott's Pics:



Pam's Pics:

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The Olympic Podiums

Today VANOC unveilded the Olympic Podiums to be used during the Games.

Hey..if Canada is gonna 'Own the Podium', at least the made us some nice ones....big fan of these. Its simple, yet distinctive and effective. Not crazy on the presenter's uniforms (far right/beside Mountie), but no big complaints.

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Who Will Win Canada's First Gold?

So unless you live under a rock, I'm sure you've been reminded that during Canada's previous two home Olympics (Montreal '76, Calgary '88), Canada was unable to secure a gold medal. Aside from Yugoslavia (Sarajevo '84) we are the only host nation to carry this dubious distinction, and we are the only nation to have accomplished this feat twice.

Its not like Canada has been shutout of the medals at home. Montreal saw us win a fairly respectable 11 medals, 5 silver and 6 bronze. Calgary gave us 5 official medals...2 silver and 3 bronze...and three 1st place finishes in demonstration events. There just hasn't been any official gold.

Thankfully, that is almost a certainty to change in Vancouver. It would be nothing less than shocking for Canada to leave Vancouver without a gold medal, and in all probability we should win somewhere between 5-10 of them.

This certainty has then given the question of not "if Canada will win a Gold", but "who will be the first". So with that in mind, lets have a look at Day 2 of the Games, and the chances that Canada might see a Gold Medal on the first day. It might just come down to a matter of what event ends before the other:

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Men’s NH Ski Jump – End Time: 11:25

No offence to the Ski Jumping crew, but with nobody currently ranked even in the Top 30 on the World Cup, it will take a miracle for this to be our first Gold.

Men’s Downhill – End Time: 1:15 PM

The Canadian Alpine team has taken a number of huge injury-related hits over the past month. Perhaps none are bigger than the loss of John Kucera to broken leg earlier this year. Prior to his injury, Kucera was a serious medal threat after winning the 2009 World Championship in Val d'Isère, France. Throw in the fact that this would have been on a home-mountain, and Kucera could have been the one to register the first gold.

However, even with the loss of Kucera, Canada’s relatively deep Alpine team provides two more medal hopefuls. Manuel Osborne-Paradis has two world cup Downhill victories to his name, including one in December (Val Gardena, Italy)...and finished 5th on the Downhill World Cup Circuit in 2009. Erik Guay is probably a long-shot, but with a World Cup Win from 2007, you can’t count him out.

Overall, Osborne-Paradis and Guay are medal threats, but it would probably still be a surprise to see either of them take gold. A medal out of either of them would be a success, so let’s not get picky on colour.

Long-Track Speed Skating (Men’s 5000m) – End Time: 2:20 PM

Although Canada’s Long-Track Speed Skating team should be very strong in Vancouver, the Men’s 5000m is not really one of the events we should be expecting a medal from. Lucas Makowsky has been the top Canadian at this distance for the past few seasons, and aside from a two 5th Place finishes in Salt Lake City in ’08 and ‘09 , he’s really more of a 15th-25th kind of result. A Top 10 would probably be considered a very successful outing.

Short-Track Speed Skating (Men’s 1500m) – End Time: 7:30 PM

Although there are three short-track speed skating events taking place on Day 2, there is only one that is a medal session…the Men’s 1500m. Canada has enjoyed a very good run of success at this distance over the past two years, having put 4 different athletes on the podium on the World Cup (Charles Hamelin, Olivier Jean, Remi Tinker, Francois-Louis Trembley). Of the four, Charles Hamelin is the best shot for Canada, having finished on the podium in the last two World-Cup events…including a win in Montreal.

At this point, I’m not completely sure who Canada will enter in this event, but given the depth of our team here, I’ll go out on a limb and say that getting shut out of the medals here will be a disappointment. This is even a potential multiple-medal event for Canada…and as such, is a very good chance for Canada to pick up our first Gold.

Women’s Moguls – End Time: 8:30 PM

If the Men are unsuccessful in getting a Gold in the Short-Track 1500m, then we have quite the weapons in reserve – Jenn Heil and Kristi Richards. Heil is of course the reigning 2006 Olympic Gold Medalist, and has recovered successfully from knee issues that forced her to take a year off. On five World Cup events this year, Jenn has three gold, a Bronze and a 5th. That impressive showing has been followed up by Kristi Richards, who has a Gold and Silver to her name this year. And if that’s not enough for you, Chloé Dufour-Lapointe has three Top-10 finishes.

Considering Jenn Heil’s Olympic record, and the fact that Canadian Women have won 4 of 5 World Cup Events this year, I think you would have to say that there is a very good chance we will take this one. Nothing is a certainty of course, but if I were a betting man, I’d look for Gold from one of Heil or Richards.

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I gotta say, reading through that list, I like Canada's chances to take home Gold on Day 2!

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Fun and Interesting Winter Olympic Facts!

- The first Winter Olympic Games were held in Chamonix, France in 1924.

- Norway has won the most medals (263) at the Winter Games.

- Because of World War I and World War II, there were no Olympic Games in 1916 (Summer), 1940, or 1944 (both winter).

- No country in the Southern Hemisphere has ever hosted a Winter Games.

- Only four athletes have ever won medals at both the Winter and Summer Olympic Games: Eddie Eagan (United States), Jacob Tullin Thams (Norway), Christa Luding-Rothenburger (East Germany), and Clara Hughes (Canada).

- Nobody has won more medals at the Winter Games than cross-country skier Bjorn Dählie of Norway, who has 12.

- The last Olympic gold medals that were made entirely out of gold were awarded in 1912.

- The 1980 Games in Lake Placid were the first to use artificial snow.

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100 Days to Go!!

Onto the final stretch!

As of yesterday, there are a scant 100 days to go until the Games start. I’m trying to not really get too ‘into the mood’ until things get closer….100 days is still a long time to draw out anticipation. But it’s a big milestone, with a few notable unveilings that were attached to it….

Coal Harbour Olympic Rings

Yesterday VANOC floated out a second set of the large LED Olympic Rings into Coal Harbour. These rings are basically the twin of the set placed at Vancouver Airport about a year ago.

According to press, the location was chosen for a few different reasons including placing them against the skyline as a backdrop, their proximity to the media centre, and of course, by the need to ‘protect’ them from protesters. Pretty hard to access something in the middle of the harbour.

This second set of rings are supposedly going to feature in a light-show whenever Canada wins a medal.

Overall I like them, and their placement. We have to take a fair number of ferry trips across the harbour to get to the Whistler/Cypress transportation hub, so hopefully we’ll be able to see them somewhat up close.

NBCOlympics.com

Also yesterday, NBCOlympic.com got a large overhaul. I don’t like it quite as much as the VANOC web overhaul, or still as much as CTVOlympics.ca, but its still pretty good.

Biggest Con is the regional restrictions on viewing videos (ongoing pet peeve). Biggest Pro is the mobile alerts and widgets offered. I really hope that closer to the games CTV, VANOC or anyone ‘Canadian’ will offer up similar features.

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Medals Unveiled

As promised, the Medals for the 2010 Winter Games were unveiled today. The slideshow below gives you an overview of the press-photos released:



I gotta say that I really really like them, especially the embedded artwork. It looks almost lacquered wood, which I think gives it a really down-to-earth quality. An interesting note is that the artwork that appears on each medal is supposedly unique for each of them, with each medal having a 'zoomed in' section of a larger piece of artwork that was drawn up.

My only complaint is that I think I would have liked a maple leaf worked into the design some how, offsetting the strong Native element to some extent....but overall...I'll take 'em...

Medals by the Numbers
• 2.05 – kilograms of gold used in production of medals
• 30 – number of steps in fabrication process
• 95 millimetres – width of Paralympic medal
• 100 millimetres – diameter of Olympic medals
• 399 – medals for the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games
• 500 grams to 576 g – weight of medals, among the heaviest in Olympic and Paralympic history.
• 615 – medals for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games
• 903 – kilograms of copper used in production of bronze medals
• 1,950 – kilograms of silver used in production of medals
• 1976 – the last year the Royal Canadian Mint created medals for the Olympic Games

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Building Momentum

The announcements and unveilings have been picking up steam a little bit over the past week, as we get closer to the 100 Days To Go Mark. Ticket Sales, Volunteer Uniforms and Transportation Plans have all come out in the last 48 hours. The one I wanted to talk about briefly however is the ‘Live City’ events announced by the City of Vancouver.

The city announced that there will be two ‘live’ celebration sites during the games: one in Yaletown at David Lam Park, and one downtown at the corner of Georgia and Beatty……..Of course, the corner of Georgia and Beatty is about 50 meters from our hotel!

Artist Rendering of the Downtown 'Live City' Site

Included at the downtown site will be a 40’ TV screen, booze, and the Canada Pavilion. Its gonna be very sweet to have that so close to our hotel…..just so long as we can get at least the semblance of some sleep.

Up Next
Coming up next are three of the big ones:
Today: Unveiling of the Medals
Week from Today: Lighting of the Flame
Sometime in the next week or so: Seat Assignment

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NY Times: Canada Protects Home Advantage at Olympics

So over the last few days, there has been a bit of a ongoing story regarding Canada’s approach to training access for foreign athletes at the 2010 venues. Other countries, the USA in particular, are upset that Canada hasn’t been allowing them extra time on the rink, or extra runs down the track, as we apparently have in the past

The New York Times has jumped on this bandwagon today: Full Article

Quite a few terms have been applied to this behaviour, including ‘unsportsmanlike’ and ‘un-Canadian’.

Well…not that my opinion matters, but if being called ‘un-Canadian’ means that we maintain the homefield advantages that hosting the Olympics are supposed to bring; then I’m all for it. As long as we are meeting the minimum access requirements as outlined in existing agreements, I see no reason why we should have to go ‘above and beyond’ and provide extra access.

One of the main advantages and points of hosting the games is the opportunity to be familiar with the venues, to play in front of hometown fans, and to use parlay those advantages into medals. Don’t think that there is an advantage worth protecting? Look at the medal total history of the USA since 1964.



As you’ll notice, there are two local maxima on this graph. You’ll also notice that those two maxima curiously correspond with the two years where the USA was the host nation. Especially striking is the jump from ’98 – Nagano to ’02 Salt Lake City, which saw the States increase their total from 13 medals to 34. That’s quite a jump.

Canada is coming of a strong showing of 24 medals in Torino. How much of a boost will playing at home provide to that total?

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