Canada At The 2010 Winter Olympics
Canada hosted and participated in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia. Canada previously hosted the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. Canada sent a team of 206 athletes (116 men, 90 women), including participants in all 15 sports. The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) had originally set a goal of winning the most medals at the Olympics, which they estimated would mean winning between 28 and 34. This goal was withdrawn by the COC on February 22. Canada, with 26 medals, surpassed their previous best medal performance in 2006, where athletes won 24 medals (including seven gold), the most medals the nation has ever won at a non-boycotted Olympics (Summer or Winter).
After failing to top the podium in Montreal and Calgary, Canada won its first gold medal on home soil in Vancouver, and broke several Olympic medal records. On February 14, freestyle skier Alexandre Bilodeau became the first Canadian to win a gold medal at home, doing so in mogul skiing. On February 27, Canada made history by winning the most gold medals of any host country at a Winter Olympics, surpassing the previous record of 10 set by Norway in 1994 and the United States in 2002, and were the first host nation to win the gold medal count at a Winter Olympics since Norway at the 1952 Winter Olympics. Canada finished the 2010 Olympics with the record for most gold medals at a single Winter Olympics, with 14, one more than the previous record of 13 set by the former Soviet Union in 1976 and Norway in 2002.
In 2010, Brian McKeever became the first Canadian athlete to be named to both Paralympic and Olympic teams, although he did not compete in the Olympic Games.
Read more about Canada At The 2010 Winter Olympics: Medalists, Preparation, Alpine Skiing, Biathlon, Bobsleigh, Cross-country Skiing, Curling, Freestyle Skiing, Figure Skating, Ice Hockey, Luge, Nordic Combined, Short Track Speed Skating, Skeleton, Ski Jumping, Snowboarding, Speed Skating, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words canada and/or winter:
“Canadians look down on the United States and consider it Hell. They are right to do so. Canada is to the United States what, in Dante’s scheme, Limbo is to Hell.”
—Irving Layton (b. 1912)
“When the ground was partially bare of snow, and a few warm days had dried its surface somewhat, it was pleasant to compare the first tender signs of the infant year just peeping forth with the stately beauty of the withered vegetation which had withstood the winter ... decent weeds, at least, which widowed Nature wears.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)