Only one country has 10 gold medals in these 2010 Winter Olympics — and that is the home country of Canada.
Canada added four new medals, two of them gold. Charles Hamelin won the 500 meters Short Track Speed Skating. That race was significant to the Americans because Apolo Ohno was disqualified for his role in a chain-reaction collision. Hamelin's time was 40.770 seconds, .051 seconds ahead of the silver medalist.
In that race, Francois-Louis Tremblay finished third with a time of 41.326to win the bronze medal.
Hameli, his brother Francois, along with Olivier Jean and Francois-Louis Tremblay won gold in the 5000 meters race with a time of 6:44.224, just .222 seconds ahead of South Korea's silver medal performance.
There easily could have been three gold for the day. The Canadian women's curling team had a 6-4 edge going into the 10th end against defending gold medal champion Sweden. And somehow gave up 2 points, forced an 11th end, and lost 7-6.
The Canadian women went 8-0 in the preliminaries.
Canada now has 21 medals (10-7-4) good for third in overall medals. The United States (34) and Germany (27) are ahead of Canada. And Canada will win at least two more medals.
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When the news came that the 2010 Winter Olympics hockey competition would be on NHL-sized ice and not the wider international ice surface, I instantly thought the Canada and United States squads would have a huge advantage as a result.
Despite this, little did anybody likely predict that the men's hockey final would be Canada and the United States. But here we are.
Canada squeaked out a victory 3-2 over Slovakia, while the United States pounded Finland with 6 first period goals to command a 6-1 win to advance to the gold medal game. Though the game is on Canadian soil, the United States will be the home team in Sunday's game.
Patrick Marleau (San Jose Sharks) redirected a shot from Shea Weber (Nashville Predators) to score the first goal. Marleau's goal had to be reviewed to make sure his stick wasn't higher than the crossbar (it wasn't).
Brenden Morrow (Dallas Stars) also tipped in a first period goal from Chris Pronger (Philadelphia Flyers).
Ryan Getzlaf added a power-play goal late in the second period to give Canada a 3-0 lead.
Canada outshot Slovakia 28-21. Roberto Luongo had 19 saves. Though Luongo had a rough third period at the end, Luongo and the Canadian defense played well when it counted.
Unlike the U.S. blowout, Canada's win was a nailbiter. Then again, if Sunday's game is close, think about this. The U.S. hasn't trailed in the tournament; Canada knows what to do if it's close, but the U.S. might be a bit rusty.
The two bordering countries play for gold on Sunday. CTV and NBC will have live coverage of the gold medal game; faceoff will start at 3:15 pm Eastern, 4:45 pm in Newfoundland and Labrador, 12:15 pm in Vancouver.
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While the women's curling team fell just short of gold, the Canadian men's curling team is in the gold medal match this evening against Norway.
The men went 9-0 in the preliminaries, including a 7-6 win over Norway.
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The Canadian women's hockey team apologized for its celebration on the ice after the crowds were gone. There was champagne, cigars, and beer.
One of the more amusing sidelines to the story was that Marie-Phillip Poulin, who scored both goals in the gold medal game, was photographed with a beer. Poulin, who is 18, is old enough to drink in her home province of Quebec, and in Alberta, where the team trained. But of course, Poulin was in British Columbia for the Olympics, and the drinking age in that province is 19. Poulin is a few weeks away from her 19th birthday.
You can't get around the fact that what Poulin did was technically illegal, though holding a beer isn't the same as drinking a beer. But instead of pointing out the irony of drinking laws being what they are, or noting that troops are old enough to die in Afghanistan for Canada and the United States, but aren't able to have a beer in most Canadian provinces and all of the United States, we get judgmental reporting.
Imagine if the U.S. women had won, celebrated with alcohol, and one of them was 19 years old. Not old enough to drink in the United States, but old enough for British Columbia. I guarantee you it would have been an issue in the United States, even if no laws would have been broken.
As this reporter notes, given that Poulin grew up in Quebec, chances are this isn't her first exposure to alcohol. Perhaps it's a difference between Quebec culture, Canadian culture, and the American mentality.
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One overlooked point from the NBC coverage of the women's hockey final. I thought it hilarious that Cammi Granato, in assessing the U.S. and Canadian squads before the game, actually gave the edge on defense to the U.S. team. Granato did a fine job in her commentary, and she is a 2-time Olympian. But the idea that the U.S. was the best defense team throughout the tournament wasn't true in reality. And the gold medal game only put an exclamation point on that notion.
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Though we had hoped for the best, one of the subplots when the world shined on Vancouver was that actor Andrew Koenig's body was found in Stanley Park in Vancouver. Koenig was 41.
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There were a lot of great signs among the crowd when Stephen Colbert shot some of his segments outside Science World. "Colbert for Prime MInister." "U-S-eh." "Colbert Nehtion." There were a number of Canadian flags.
There was even a sign pleading to "Bring back the Jets" as in the Winnipeg Jets to the NHL.
The setting might have seen a bit unusual for the outdoor shots, but as it turns out, you couldn't get a prettier picture. They were by the water, you could see the SkyTrain in the background. And the mountains of North Vancouver rose behind Colbert in grand style.
The crowd was incredible to watch. They had to be out there for quite awhile, and they really seemed to enjoy themselves.
And the sunshine. Rain jokes aside, the Vancouver Chamber of Commerce should use that tape to show what Vancouver could look like.