News and Events

Another big medal haul by Canadian athletes brings our total medal count to 12!!

The big star of the day was Lauren Woolstencroft, who picked up her 3rd Gold medal of the games in the Womens Standing Downhill. Here is a photo of some of her fans….

Lauren Woolstencroft Fans

She is closely followed by visually impaired cross country skier Brian McKeever who won his second gold medal of the games in the 10klm classic. Congratulations again.

Today was a fun day to be at Creekside watching the downhill events – it is amazing how courageous these athletes are. Not only that, but they are pretty darn quick! Check out the video below of two sit-skiers getting air on ‘Hot Air’ , the last rollover of the course. If that doesn’t impress you, especially the recovery by the second guy, then you are hard to impress.

Sam Danniels Fan Club

One more thing, local boy Sam Danniels had a huge support crew there today. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to reward them with a medal winning performance, but a big thumbs up to him and all the rest of the athletes (especially the Canadian and Aussies!) Speaking of whom, Australian Marty Mayberry and Cameron Rahles-Rahbula who won Silver and 4th place in the Mens Standing Downhill. I happened to meet Marty’s dad in the crowd and he was very proud of his son.

Andrea Dziewior

That is a picture of Andrea Dziewior (I think) as she crossed the finish line for a 9th place finish. She promptly crashed and had to be taken to the hospital – so hopefully she is okay.

There are plenty more athletes I should mention, but time is running out for me, so one last congrats to Viviane Forest for winning GOLD in the womens visually impaired downhill.

Another great day for Canada.

Canada is currently doing well at these Paralympic Games – as I type this, we have a total of 8 medals (3 Gold, 3 Silver and 2 Bronze) which is good enough to place us 4th overall in the medal tally. Russia is leading the way with a total of 23 medals (8,10,5) while the dominant US team from the Olympics is lagging behind in the Para’s with a total of 4 medals (1,2,1). Guess we can see where all their funding goes.

Firstly, congratulations to Lauren Woolstencroft for being a double gold medallist (Canada’s first for these games) – she won the standing Slalom and Giant Slalom events (and I think she has more to come). Here is a photo of her and Karolina Wisniewska accepting their Gold and Bronze medals from the Slalom.

Canadian Medallists

It is good to see two Canadian flags being raised at the same time

Canadian Flags

Next up is Brian McKeever, who won Gold in the 20klm cross country. Brian was the center of a bit of controversy during the Olympic games – he was the first disabled person (maybe first Canadian only, and I say ‘only’ pretty lightly) to qualify for the big games. Unfortunately, he was part of a 5-man squad and only 4 were allowed to race (4 per country maximum) – and he was the unlucky one chosen to sit out.

Brian has now won a total of 4 Gold medals (not sure about Silver and Bronze) over the last 3 Paralympic games. Wow! Good on you Brian, and I hope to see you competing at the 2014 Sochi games.

Here is a photo of him receiving his Gold.

Brian McKeever

Thanks to Justa Jeskova for the photos, including this one of a band playing a free concert as part of the Whistler Live experience.

Whistler Live Music

Sadly, I just found out that Canadian Paralympic athletes don’t win ‘prize money’ like the athletes from the Olympic games. During the big games, Canadian won CAD$20,000 for a Gold medal, and $15,000 / $10,000 for Silver and Bronze. The Paralympic athletes win their medal (obviously) and a hand shake. Where is the love?
Source

What a day for Canada!

3 Gold medals and a Bronze to take Canada to a whopping total of 13 Gold , 7 Silver and 5 Bronze. Sounds like a lot of records were broken (Edit: or equaled) today, with ‘most Gold by Canada in a single day’ and ‘most Gold by a host nation’ amongst them

With any luck, we will soon be saying Canada holds the record for the ‘most Gold by any country EVER‘ – to do so, we just need one more for a total of 14.

So congratulations to Denny Morrison, Lucas Makowsky and Mathieu Giroux in the long-track speed skating. Jasey-Jay Anderson in the Snowboard Parallel Slalom, and the curling team – John Morris, Marc Kennedy, Benjamin Hebert and Adam Enright skipped by Kevin Martin. I was lucky enough to be at the Sliding Center to help cheer on Lydon Rush and the boys ( Chris Bihan, David Bissett and Lascelles Brown ) capture the Bronze in the 4 man bobsleigh.

Whew, what a day indeed Do I sound greedy by saying I wish Pierre Lueders had have found a way to join Lyndon on the Bobsleigh podium?

One thing I can say is, it has been a LOT of fun being here. I have ended up just leaving the camera at home, to just go ‘be there’. What a great atmosphere! With friendly international competition during the day and awesome entertainment at night.

Jon Montgomery

This report is a few days late, but congratulations to Jon Montgomery for winning the first Canadian medal of the games in Whistler. To put the icing on the cake, it was GOLD!!!!

Whistler Sliding Center Pole

I was lucky enough to be there, and had a fantastic night. The atmosphere was electric, with the sliding center being an exciting venue to be a spectator. As the final competitor (Martins Dukurs from Latvia) was coming down, his time at the splits was always just faster than Jon’s, but you could see the gap was closing. It wasn’t until Martins actually crossed the finish line that Jon’s time became the best, and Jon became the Olympic Champion!

Jon not only has a gold medal, but is probably the favorite to win ‘The best way to accept your medal’ award. At both the flower and medal ceremonies, he inspired even more cheering by jumping onto the podium in a way that clearly showed how excited and proud he was.

Skeleton

Unfortunately, Mellissa Hollingsworth, the current World Champion for Womens Skeleton (I think), made one small mistake on her final run which cost her a lot of time. She was having a very fast run, and was threatening to take the Gold, but she lost too much time and dropped back to 5th. It was a heart-wrenching moment, as Mellisa was a crowd favorite. Afterwards, she was very emotional, and seemed upset about letting Canada down. If by any chance she was to read this, all I can say is that she is far from letting the country down – Canada is very proud of her, and is thankful for all the hard work and effort on her part (and her coaches and support) – She gave us a reason to cheer!

Mellisa Hollingsworth

Here is a pic showing the final turn, and my friends holding up their ‘More Cowbell’ sign – it is becoming the most well known sign at the Whistler venues and they constantly get swamped with photo requests.

More Cowbell

I hate to spoil such a special post, but I have a bit of a rant ….

I want to say how sick I am of the mainstream media. All they seem to focus on is the bad (guess that is what drives the ratings for them). The weather has not been perfect, fair enough, but the games have gone on, and I don’t hear too many of the athletes or the spectators complaining about the lovely, warm, sunny days. It was unfortunate about some spectators at Cypress events having their tickets canceled, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

Next, the media is starting to give Canadian athletes a hard time about not ‘Owning the Podium’. ‘Own the Podium‘ is a funding program for Canadian athletes set up to help them do well at these games. Before the games, the media was hyping it up claiming Canada would top the medal tally, and since they haven’t met those (extremely high) expectations, the media is focusing on this as a ‘fail’. Let’s be fair to these athletes – while not claiming medals, many Canadians are putting in ‘personal bests’ and ‘best ever results’ for Canadians in their event. If the media can’t be happy with that, than are they really Canadian?

Programs like ‘Own the Podium’ take time to see real results. You just can’t expect to win Gold by throwing money at the event. It takes time and training, and a lot of hard work from the athlete and support staff. If Canada stick to its guns, and continues to fund these sports as they have for the last few years, Canada will grow into a very strong Winter Olympic country.

/end rant

Update: Current medal count as of midday Friday 26th February -

Gold 8 – Silver 6 – Bronze 3 = Total 17

Canada is tied for the most amount of Gold medals with USA and Germany at 8!!! Hopefully a few more to come in Mens Hockey and Curling. We also have some other medal chances still to come.

Overall, I think Canada is doing VERY well.

Also, Australia is having its best ever Winter Olympic Games, with 2 Gold and a Silver (previous best was 2 medals)

Lindsey Vonn

Yesterday Lindsey Vonn from the USA won the Womens Downhill ahead of fellow American Julia Mancuso and Elisabeth Goergl from Austria.

Lindsey Vonn

Another amazing day, lots of sunshine and excitement in the air. I was hoping that the day would later come to become known as ‘Britt Janyk Day’ – but despite racing a great race, her 6th best time left her off the podium

Britt Janyk

Last night, I went to the medal ceremony, arriving too late to see Vonn get her Gold (I wasn’t the only one due to big lines and security checkpoint time) but watched the rest, including Maelle Rickers Gold (which took place in Vancouver). There was a huge cheer from the crowd for her I did see the medals being awarded to the Mens and Womens Cross Country Sprint Classic podium finishers. I have loved the Olympics all my life, and to see some athletes receive their medals is something special indeed. Years of dedication coming down to (usually) a single day or single run must be a hell of a lot of pressure.

Cross Country Sprint Classic

Whistler Cauldron