Canada's pot of goldCanada's pot of gold

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It was Vancouver, then Vonncouver, then even Vancuso for a while, I think. But mostly it was rainy. And mild. It was kind of like having the Winter Olympics in Seattle, only with not as much flannel.

Unless you count the pattern on the American snowboard uniforms.

What started out tragically as an Olympics defined by the death of an athlete, Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, ended as an Olympics defined by Canada's gold medal in men's hockey.

And if you don't believe that, then you didn't see the ninety-year-old grandmother sitting in her wheelchair on the curb, waiving a Canadian flag at the honking traffic. You weren't on Robson Street six hours after the overtime win against the United States, the only Yankee idiot who dared walk into the belly of the beast that late.

The hockey win gave Canada a Winter Olympics-record 14 gold medals in Vancouver. The silver won by the U.S. also set a record: Americans won 37 medals here, more than any country ever has before at the Winter Games.

It was a good 16 days for North America. (What about Mexico, you say? Well, they had Hubertus von Hohenlohe, the 51-year-old alpine skier who is descended from German royalty. He's also a photographer. And a businessman. And a pop singer called "Andy Himalaya." All true.)

About that medal count: It was being tallied everywhere here. On the way to Cypress Mountain there was even a billboard on the front lawn of a private residence that was keeping track. Only problem: They hadn't updated it. The counter said 001 and Canada had won its second medal earlier in the day, a bronze by Kristina Groves in the women's 3,000-meter speedskating race.

Also about that counter: There were three spots for numbers. Three spots? Really optimistic considering no one's ever won more Winter Olympics medals than the 37 the Americans captured here.

The counter was also wrong at Yaletown Brewing Co. last Monday night. It hadn't updated to include the gold medal won by Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir in ice dance.

Which was surprising, since the one thing you can be sure of is that Canadians love their gold medals. After each one of them, the Heritage Horn on top of the main press center -- that building with sails for a roof -- played the opening four bars of "O Canada."

At 115 decibels.

It's how Vancouverites know when it's lunchtime. No kidding.

We didn't hear much about the medal count until the Canadians started winning golds. But once they started, ooh boy, you couldn't get away from it. Even the volunteers got in on the act.

Suddenly, the front page of a major city paper read: "CANADA LEADS THE GAMES IN GOLD."

It was certainly an accomplishment. Before Alexandre Bilodeau won the men's moguls on Feb. 14, Canada had never captured an Olympic gold medal on home soil. The celebration that night had been building since Montreal in 1976. It was carried over from Calgary in 1988.

"Our kids are crying they're so excited," one woman, Suzanne Rose, 36, of Quilchena, British Columbia, told me.

Another woman walking to her bus that night screamed into her phone: "Dude, we won gold! And I was there!"

The Olympics were held in a big city again, and it looks like that's mostly how it will be from now on. The Summer and Winter Games have just become too big. One thing you miss: The kind of intimacy you get from a place like Lillehammer, Norway, which Olympic writers are always talking about. One thing you gain: Paragraphs like these next two.

One night British Columbia turned, well, downright British when particularly daft fellow whistling the "Superman" theme smacked us in the face with a wet British flag. He was wearing it like a cape and sprinting down the sidewalk near the trendy Yaletown neighborhood.

Source: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/03/01/1780228/canadas-pot-of-gold.html

Winter Olympics 2010: Virtue and Moir restore Canadian pride with ice dance gold

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Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir had roaring Canadian fans leaping to their feet after winning the Winter Olympics ice dance gold medal and revive the host nation's flagging morale.

Virtue and Moir's stirring performance to Mahler's Symphony No. 5 raised the domed roof at the Pacific Coliseum when they were awarded a combined total of 221.57 points to beat Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White by 5.83.

Russian world champions Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin had been tipped as the Winter Olympics competition favourites but faltering in Sunday's original dance, they could not make up ground and had to settle for bronze.

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"This is the moment we dreamed of. It's everything we dreamed of. We could not be happier," a grinning Moir said as he caressed his gold medal. "I am going to wear it in the shower, I'm not taking it off all week long."

With Canadians reeling from their team's ice hockey defeat to the United States on Sunday, a crowd of 12,000 was willing the home pair to succeed. And it erupted as soon as the four-minute routine ended with Moir down on his knees cradling Virtue's smiling face in his hands.

Davis and White, who share two coaches and train with the champions, took silver for their dramatic Phantom of the Opera exhibition.

Virtue and Moir dazzled their audience with a dance full of intrigue and drama.

"To have that moment with the home crowd and with each other and to have all that hard work pay off, it's amazing," said Moir.

Virtue, 20, added: "Right now, Vancouver is our favourite place to be. It's been the perfect Games."

Sinead and John Kerr finished what could prove their final Olympics in eighth place.

Despite setting a series of season's bests in the competition to finish with a total score of 186.01, medal contention proved a long way off for the Scots, although the crowd was impressed with their routine to Linkin Park's 'Krwing'.

John Kerr said: "Obviously we always want to finish as high as we can and get in a medal position. It's disappointing because we wanted to be higher but so long as you give it your best you can't complain."

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/winter-olympics/7297544/Winter-Olympics-2010-Virtue-and-Moir-restore-Canadian-pride-with-ice-dance-gold.html