The 10 sports Canada will medal in this February
No country heard their national anthem played more at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics than Canada did, raking in 14 gold, seven silver and four bronze medals.
Experts and pundits see more gold in the future for our Canucks, and with no further ado, here is my list of the top 10 sports you need to watch this Winter Games that will feature Canadians on the podium (no particular order).
1. Bobsleigh/Skeleton: Okay, okay, these are technically two separate events at the Olympics, but for the sake of fitting the maximum amount of Canadian talent on this list, I combined them. These two teams have an astounding 16 former medal winning athletes on them, including former McMaster Marauder and Hamilton Tiger Cat, Jesse Lumsden, and Heather Moyse, who wore gold in the two-woman event in 2010. Some say Moyse is the best athlete to ever come from P.E.I., as she represents Canada in both bobsleigh and rugby on the international stage.
2. Men’s hockey: There is this computer program that uses algorithms and complicated statistics to determine what nations or athletes will medal in various Olympic events. This machine, for what it’s worth, predicted Canada’s men’s hockey team not to medal. Hogwash. Despite the fresh wounds of not medaling in the World Juniors, these vets won’t let Canada down on the world stage. On an interesting side, since 1980 at Lake Placid, only Sweden and Finland have medaled more than Canada in men’s hockey with five total medals to Canada’s four.
3. Women’s hockey: Since women’s ice hockey was introduced to the Olympics at the 1998 Nagano Games, Canada has claimed silver once and gold three times. The Hayley-Wickenheiser-led Canucks may be the most likely of all Canadian teams to medal in Sochi.
4. Snowboarding: Canadian snowboarders tallied two gold and one silver in Vancouver, and pundits predict that the number of Canadians on the podium will only rise this time around. Canada is a frontrunner in the slopestyle event. Look for big improvements in the halfpipe events for both men and women’s – an event Canadians have never medaled in.
5. Men’s Curling: Though gold medalist, Kevin Martin, and silver medalist, Cheryl Bernard, will not be representing Canada in Sochi – Winnipeg native Jennifer Jones and Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie are too good not to medal. Besides, the only sport more Canadian than lacrosse and hockey, may very well be curling.
6. Figure Skating: I’m not going to lie to you, I wouldn’t know a triple sow cow if it hit me in the face, and I have a difficult enough time dancing on the Trappers dance floor, never mind an ice surface. So when I say that ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Muir are “good,” I am going purely based off what experts are saying. The pair have won two World Championships in the past four years and Virtue is skating at 100 per cent, something she was not doing in Vancouver. The pair are said to be a shoe-in for a medal in 2014.
7. Speedskaters: Canadians can skate, eh? Kristina Groves, (silver and gold medalist), Clara Hughes (gold medalist), and Christine Nesbitt (gold medalist), are all back on the ice for these Olympics and experts have them ranked very well against an always difficult, tight, and fast field. Canada also won gold in the team pursuit in Vancouver, meaning the only colour more common than the white of the ice and snow at the Olympics is gold draped over red Roots tracksuits.
8. Skiing (moguls): There are a plethora of skiing events at the Olympics, but where all Canadian eyes should be focused is on the moguls event where the Dufour-Laponte sisters, Justine (19), and Chloe (22), are expected to finish first and second after their one-two finish at the World Cup last January. Mikael Kingsbury, from Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, Quebec. has also won just about everything there is to win in men’s moguls, and Sochi should prove to be no different.
9. Skiing (cont’d): Alexandre Bilodeau gets his own number on this list, as he is the first Canadian to ever win gold on home surface. However, early projections have Bilodeau finishing second, but not in freestyle this time – instead it is likely to be in moguls.
10. Relay Luge: This is a brand new event being featured in the Olympics, and me-oh-my is it going to be fun! The clock begins with the women’s single, and once the women cross the finish line, the clock continues for men’s single and doesn’t stop until the last team, the team doubles, crosses the finish line. This is going to be the fastest relay you’ll ever see; lugers eclipse speeds of 135 km per hour.
The Sochi Winter Games run from Feb. 7 to 23 and with 12 new medal events, Canada is likely to improve upon their 26 medals attained in Vancouver. Be proud, cheer loud, and adjust bedtimes and alarm clock accordingly to accommodate all the Canucks representing our great nation overseas.