Olympic Update

It has been an amazing last couple of days for Canada and its Olympians, as our athletes added five more medals, moving Canada's total to fifteen at the Vancouver games. Right now Canada stands fourth overall in the medal standings, including seven golds, six silvers, and two bronze.

It has primarily been Canada's female athletes who are earning Canada its medals, winning eleven of Canada's fifteen medals so far. In fact, in the last two days all five of Canada's medals have been won by women. Good work ladies.

On Tuesday, Ashleigh McIvor easily took the gold medal for Canada in one of the newest Olympic sports, ski-cross. It was the first time that I got to see the sport, and I was very impressed. It has everything that an extreme sport needs in speed, excitement, jumps, and crashes. It was a great Olympic introduction to the sport, and congratulations to Ashleigh McIvor for winning the first Olympic gold medal in the women's ski-cross.

In long track speed skating, Canadian Olympian extraordinaire, Clara Hughes, won the bronze medal in the ladies' 5000 meter race yesterday. It was the swan song for Hughes and her illustrious career, which now includes two summer olympic medals in cycling, and four long track speed skating medals. She remains the only Olympian ever to win multiple medals in both the summer and winter Olympics.

Over to short track speed skating, the Canadians women's relay team scored the silver medal in the 3000 metre race last night. It was a race full of suprises, that saw the first place Koreans disqualified at the end of the race for impeding the American skaters. Canada, which originally finished third, was advanced to second place. The Chinese team advanced to the gold medal position, and the Americans took the bronze. This sport never fails to provide excitment, and was a very good finish for the Canadian women's relay team.

Maybe the biggest win for Canada last night, was in the ladies' bobsleigh. After four heats, both Canadian teams finished first and second overall in the event, winning the gold and silver medals. It was excellent to watch both Canadian bobsleigh teams dominate their runs. Congratulations to Heather Moyse and Kaillie Humphries who won gold, and Shelley-Ann Brown and Helen Upperton who won silver.

There was more good news for Canada last night, as the men's hockey team completely dominated the Russian squad by a final score of 7-3. Going into this game, I expected a much bigger fight from the Russians, but team Canada dominated every aspect of the game, especially in shutting down Russia's high-scoring offence. Heading in to the semi-finals, Canada is beginning to look very strong. They will play Slovakia next, who beat Sweden out of the tournament last night. That game will take place Friday. The United States will play Finland in the other semi-final game.

Another big game in hockey tonight, is the Canadian women take on their rivals from the United States. These teams have a very competitive history with Canada taking gold against the US in Salt Lake City as a highlight. This should make for a very fast and exciting game.