With the 2014 Winter Olympic Games now a distant memory, the world has moved on. It has moved on from the funny faces of Ashley Wagner, the hilarious #sochiproblems, and everything else in between. But before we move on and forget, let us recap all of Canada’s medal wins.
Day 1: Feb 8, 2014
Mark McMorris brings home Canada’s first medal of the games with an impressive bronze medal victory of men’s snowboard slopestyle.
Justine and Chloe Dufour-Lapointe send sister shivers to all women moguls competitors. Chloe captured silver while her sister, who scored 0.78 more points than her, took home the gold medal.
Day 2: Feb 9, 2014
In the inaugural Team Skate event in Sochi, Team Canada (composed of Patrick Chan, Scott Moir, Tessa Virtue, Kaetlyn Osmond, Kevin Reynolds, Eric Radford, Meagan Duhamel, Kirsten Moore-Towers and Dylan Moscovitch) captured the silver medal by edging out their American rivals, by five points.
Day 3: Feb 10, 2014
Charles Hamelin defied odds and defeated heavy favorites Victor An of Russia and Tianyu Han of China, in order to win the gold medal in the Men’s 1500m speedskating competition. Hamelin received gold around his neck after edging Victor An of Russia by seven-hundredths of a second.
Alex Bilodeau proved once again that he is Canada’s golden boy, after defeating fellow Canadian Mikael Kingsbury by 1.6 points en route to his second gold medal in a row. Bilodeau also proved why he is one of Canada’s most loved athletes after the event by dedicating his gold medal to his brother Frederic, who suffers from has cerebral palsy. While Bilodeau defended his gold medal title, Mikael Kingsbury impressed with a solid run; however, fell short of the gold medal after struggling with the vicious turns on the moguls course.
Day 4: Feb 11, 2014
The inaugural women’s skiing slopestyle event impressed many, as the youth of the sport proved exactly why the sport is so much fun to watch. Canadian Dara Howell, who is just 19 years in age, dominated the field by defeating American Devin Logan – 20 years of age – who went on to win the silver medal by a 8.8 point difference. Canada was not finished there as 25 year old Kim Lamarre took home the bronze medal after being edged by Devin Logan by 0.40 points.
Day 5: Feb 12, 2014
With one of the most heartwarming stories of the 2014 Olympics, Gilmore Junio put forth Canada’s collective interests while pushing his individual interests to the side, when he sacrificed his spot in the men’s 1000m speedskating event. He vacated his spot so that fellow Canadian, Denny Morrison could have a shot to go for gold. Morrison certainly did not disappoint as he brought home a silver medal for Canada, himself, and Junio.
Day 6: Feb 13, 2014
Day six was a rare day for Canada, as we picked up no medals. Canada did defeat arch-rival the USA in a round-robin match in women’s hockey in which birthday girl, Meghan Agosta, scored two goals en route to a 3-2 victory. Both Canadian curling teams won, with Jennifer Jones knocking off Great Britain 9-6, and Brad Jacobs knocking off host country Russia, 7-4.
Day 7: Feb 14, 2014
Patrick Chan and Yuzuru Hanyu entered a tight race on Day 7, in which one was guaranteed to leave with the gold medal, while the other would settle for silver. Hanyu skated first, and to the relief of many Canadian fans, made many mistakes. The stage was set for Patrick Chan. Chan struggled as much, if not more than Hanyu in his free skate, but nonetheless, made his country proud by winning a silver medal.
Day 8: Feb 15, 2014
Day 8 for Canadians was known as “Blades: The Return of Denny Morrison.” Morrison, who earned his way into the Men’s 1500m speedskating event left it all on the ice as he won his second medal of the games; however, this time, a bronze medal.
Day 9: Feb 16, 2014
In the Men’s Super G, Jan Heduc brought home Canada’s first Alpine Skiing medal in 20 years after skiing the Super G in a time of 1:18.67, which was the time of Bode Miller, who skied just a few positions before Heduc. Heduc showed the Canadian spirit of “never giving up,” en route to a (joint) bronze medal victory.
Dominique Maltais also won on that day, with silver in Women’s Snowboard Cross.
Day 10: Feb 17, 2014
Day 10 marked one of the most controversial days of the Olympics for Canadians, as the golden couple, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, danced their way to Olympic silver. Although many thought they had out-danced the eventual gold medal winners, Davis and White, the judges certainly disagreed, as they scored Davis and White 4.53 points higher than the golden couple.
Day 11: Feb 18, 2014
Mike Riddle solved his own riddle after a dominant second run which earned him the silver medal in the Men’s Ski Halfpipe. After scoring a 71.40 in his first run, and as a result, basically being ruled out of medal contention, Riddle came back with a stunning 90.60 point run.
Canada also won a silver medal in the Women’s 3000 Speedskating relay. Team Canada (composed of Marie-Ève Drolet, Jessica Hewitt, Marianne St-Gelais, and Valérie Maltais) skated a conservative race behind relay powerhouses China and Korea en route to a bronze medal victory. However, China was later disqualified, giving the Canadian girls a well deserved silver medal victory.
Day 12: Feb 19, 2014
All eyes were on the Americans for the Women’s 2 Man Bobsled Event. Kallie Humphries and Heather Moyse, the eventual closing ceremony flag bearers for Canada, didn’t let that bother them. Humpheries and Moyse had a near perfect race, after knocking off gold-medal favorites, Lauryn Williams and Elana Meyers of the US by a tenth of a second.
Day 13: Feb 20, 2014
Day 13 started off with a bang as Jennifer Jones and her rink entered the Women’s Curling Finals with a perfect record. Jennifer Jones finally brought home the gold in Women’s Curling for Canada, after Canada had placed with back to back bronze medals in 2002 and 2006, and had disappointed with a silver medal in 2010, with a lost to team Sweden. Although Jones’ rink did not represent Canada in 2010 when they settled for silver, Jones showed once again why Canadians are the most dominant at curling with a 6-3 victory over defending champions, Sweden. The action didn’t stop there.
Two hours after Jennifer Jones brought home gold for Canada, Canada’s women’s hockey team looked as if they would be settling for silver against their arch-rivals, the USA. After a dominant first and second period by the USA, team Canada went into the third period trailing, 2-0. There was still hope for the Canadian girls with 20 minutes to play; however, as time winded down, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 minutes left, any hope dissipated. That was until Briane Jenner scored a beautiful goal which deflected off an American defender, after a great individual effort. The party didn’t stop there, as Marie-Philip Poulin scored with 55 seconds left in the third period to tie the game at two a piece after receiving a perfect centering pass from Hayley Irwin. And of course, things got even wilder from there. The Americans were shocked, while the Canadians were ecstatic, and filled with hope, as both teams entered a 20 minute sudden-death overtime period. Marie-Philip Poulin cemented her name in Women’s Hockey about 12 minutes into the overtime period when she sniped a beautiful snap shot past American goaltender Jessie Vetter to give the Canadian Women’s Hockey team their fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal.
Day 14: Feb 21, 2014
Off the heels of a super exciting Day 13, in which Canada picked up two gold medals, no Canadian athlete wanted to stop the momentum on Day 14. The day opened when Canadians Marielle Thompson and Kelsey Serwa won the gold and silver medals respectively, in the Women’s Ski Cross. With a dominant 1-2 performance similar to that of the Dufour-Lapointe sisters, Canada made Olympic history by being the first nation to win four medals in freestyle skiing at one games. Dara Howell and Mike Riddle made history alongside Serwa and Thompson.
Of course, Canada was not done yet on Day 14 either. Brad Jacobs and his rink defeated Great Britain in what was hyped to be one of the biggest matches in curling history. Jacobs made sure that happened in a different way. Jacobs and his rink dominated the entire time, en route to defeating Great Britain 9-3 in only 8 (of 10) ends.
Charle Cournoyer ensured that Canada had a medal of every color on Day 14 after winning a bronze medal in the men’s 500m speedskating event to give Canada 4 medals on Day 14.
Day 14 was capped off by a 1-0 Canadian victory over the Americans in the men’s hockey semifinal.
Day 15: Feb 22,2014
After a wild Day 13 and 14, Canada cooled off, just in time for their Day 16 Gold Medal showdown in Men’s hockey against Team Sweden. Canada earned no medals on Day 15, but a nation was waiting patiently for a whole day, in search of another gold medal .
Day 16: February 23th/2014
Canada – 3
Sweden – 0
O Canada.
