Canada at the 2006 Winter Olympics

Infobox Olympics Canada
games=2006 Winter
competitors=196
sports=15
flagbearer=Danielle Goyette (opening)
Cindy Klassen (closing)
gold=7
silver=10
bronze=7
total=24
rank=5

Canada competed at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, with a team of 196 athletes and 220 support staff.

As host of the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics, Canada was pressured to do well at the 2006 Games. The Canadian Olympic Committee's goal for 2006 was to have a top three finish in the medal count [http://www.cbc.ca/story/sports/national/2005/01/21/Sports/coc_funding050121.html] or 25 total medals, as a start to reach their goal of having the highest medal count at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia. Canada had managed to increase its medal count at each Winter Olympics since the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, United States. World Cup results from the 2005-06 season seemed to indicate that Canada would have a good performance in Turin, Italy. Canada met one of those goals and nearly met the other by finishing third behind the United States and Germany with 24 medals. [http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/disciplines/freestyle/cupstandings.html] . The Games were also the first litmus test for the increased athletic funding and resources pursued by the "Own the Podium - 2010" program.

Another task for the Canadian contingent was to promote the 2010 Games, Vancouver and surrounding region, the province of British Columbia, as well as Canada as a nation. This was evident in the Canadian participation in the closing ceremonies of the Games and the establishment of the "Canada House" in Turin. The Games also provided opportunities for organizing committees to gather experience and strategies to run the Games in Vancouver.

Medalists

Canada's total medal count of 24 was the highest ever won by the nation in any Winter Olympics, and was the second highest total for the country at "any" Olympic games (summer or winter), exceeded only by the 44 medals won at the 1984 Summer Olympics which were boycotted by the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries. Not only did Canada increase its total medal count from the previous Winter Games for the 7th straight time (since 1980), but the total medal count was also the "best ever" for Canada for the 5th straight time (since 1992).

Canada won at least one medal in 10 of the 15 sport disciplines competed at the games, and gold medals in 6 different disciplines; both feats were unmatched by any other nation. Canada also had the most 4th and 5th place finishes (14 and 9 respectively) of any country in these games. These results support the effectiveness of the "Own the Podium - 2010" program.

Cindy Klassen bests the total Olympic medals collected in a single Games by a Canadian, with 5 and bests the total Olympic medal count of any Canadian (Winter and Summer) with 6. The previous record of 3 medals at a single Olympics was held by Gaetan Boucher for the 1984 Winter Olympics and Marc Gagnon at the 2002 Winter Olympics. Meanwhile, Clara Hughes ties the old mark of 5 career Olympic medals, held by Marc Gagnon and Phil Edwards. Sixteen of the 24 medals were won by female athletes. At age 50, Russ Howard became the oldest Canadian gold medallist in Olympic history.

OlyGoca Gold

* Cross-country skiing
** Women's sprint: Chandra Crawford

* Curling
** Men's curling: Brad Gushue, Jamie Korab, Russ Howard, Mark Nichols and Mike Adam (alternate)

* Freestyle skiing
** Women's moguls: Jennifer Heil

* Ice hockey
**Women's hockey: Canadian national women's hockey team; Meghan Agosta, Gillian Apps, Jennifer Botterill, Cassie Campbell, Gillian Ferrari, Danielle Goyette, Jayna Hefford, Becky Kellar, Gina Kingsbury, Charline Labonté, Carla MacLeod, Caroline Ouellette, Cherie Piper, Cheryl Pounder, Colleen Sostorics, Kim St-Pierre, Vicky Sunohara, Sarah Vaillancourt, Katie Weatherston, Hayley Wickenheiser

* Skeleton
** Men's skeleton: Duff Gibson

* Speed skating
** Women's 1500 m: Cindy Klassen
** Women's 5000 m: Clara Hughes

OlySica Silver

* Bobsleigh
** Two-man bobsleigh: Pierre Lueders, Lascelles Brown

* Cross-country skiing
** Women's team sprint: Beckie Scott and Sara Renner

* Short track speed skating
** Men's 500 m: François-Louis Tremblay
** Men's 5000 m relay: Eric Bedard, François-Louis Tremblay, Charles Hamelin, Mathieu Turcotte, Jonathan Guilmette
** Women's 3000 m relay: Alanna Kraus, Anouk Leblanc-Boucher, Kalyna Roberge, Tania Vicent, Amanda Overland

*Skeleton
** Men's skeleton: Jeff Pain

* Speed skating
** Men's team pursuit: Arne Dankers, Steven Elm, Denny Morrison, Jason Parker and Justin Warsylewicz
** Women's team pursuit: Kristina Groves, Clara Hughes, Cindy Klassen, Christine Nesbitt and Shannon Rempel
** Women's 1000 m: Cindy Klassen
** Women's 1500 m: Kristina Groves

OlyBrca Bronze

* Curling
** Women's curling: Shannon Kleibrink, Amy Nixon, Glenys Bakker, Christine Keshen and Sandra Jenkins (alternate)

* Figure skating
** Men's singles: Jeffrey Buttle

* Short track speed skating
** Women's 500 m: Anouk Leblanc-Boucher

* Skeleton
** Women's skeleton: Mellisa Hollingsworth-Richards

* Snowboarding
** Women's snowboard cross: Dominique Maltais

* Speed skating
** Women's 3000 m: Cindy Klassen
** Women's 5000 m: Cindy Klassen

Athletes by sport

Alpine skiing

Men's combined

Men's slalom

Women's downhill

Women's Super-G

Men's 20 km individual

Women's 4x6 km relay

Women's two-woman

Men's 50 km free, mass start

Men's 4x10 km relay

Women's sprint

Curling

Men's curling
* Brad Gushue, Mark Nichols, Russ Howard, Jamie Korab, Mike Adam (x)

Game results

Women's individual

Freestyle skiing

Aerials

Men's aerials

Women's team
*Reserves
**Eric Staal
**Jason Spezza
**Dan Boyle³

*Injured
**Ed Jovanovski
**Scott Niedermayer

*¹ Bryan McCabe, originally an alternate, replaces Ed Jovanovski due to injury.
*² Jay Bouwmeester replaces Scott Niedermayer due to injury.
*³ Dan Boyle replaces Bryan McCabe as an alternate.

Women's team

Performance

Women's singles

Large hill sprint

Men's 1500 m

Women's 1000 m

keleton

Mellisa Hollingsworth-Richards won a bronze medal in Skeleton, thus becoming the first Canadian to win an Olympic medal in the event. A day later, Duff Gibson became the first Canadian to win a Gold medal in the event after taking the Men's Gold. Fellow Canadian Jeff Pain won the Silver medal, and there were chances of a Bronze as well; however, their teammate placed fourth.

Gibson, 39, became the oldest competitor to win an individual gold medal in Winter Olympics history, surpassing Al MacInnis as the oldest Canadian to win a gold medal. MacInnis won gold at the 2002 Winter Olympics on the Canadian men's hockey team.

Men's

Men's normal hill individual jump

Women's parallel giant slalom

nowboard cross

Men's snowboard cross

Men's 1000 m

Men's 10000 m

Women's 1000 m

Women's 5000 m

Women's Team Pursuit

Flag bearer

Women's ice hockey player Danielle Goyette carried the flag for Canada in the opening ceremony. Cross-country skier Beckie Scott, bobsledder Pierre Lueders, long-track speedskaters Cindy Klassen and Clara Hughes all said that they would not submit their names to carry the flag.

Scott, Klassen and Hughes all had events within two days of the opening ceremonies and believed that not participating in the opening ceremonies would give them a better chance at a finishing well in their events. Lueders turned down the chance because at the time it appeared that his bobsleigh partner, Lascelles Brown, would not be granted Canadian citizenship. Afterwards, Lueders said he would carry the flag but said that Brown would be a much better choice.

Some criticized these choices, including hockey analyst Don Cherry, who called the athletes unpatriotic and said that other athletes would have loved to have had the opportunity. Others, including past flag bearer Catriona LeMay Doan spoke in favour of their decisions, saying that the opening ceremonies were a long process and took a lot of energy. She criticized Don Cherry, saying that many athletes in the past had turned down the flag-bearing opportunity at the opening ceremonies in order to focus on their competition, and that Don Cherry, having never participated in international athletic competition, does not have the right to be critical of Olympic athletes.

After winning five medals (more than any other Canadian at a Winter Games), Cindy Klassen accepted the selection as the flag bearer for the closing ceremonies.

Other participation

As the host nation of the next Winter Games, Canada had the role to promote the 2010 Winter Olympics, its host city, its host province, and the country over the duration of these Games. "Canada House" was a log cabin constructed with Canadian pine wood and it was one of 12 nation's houses established in Turin. The pavilion opened its doors to the public on January 23, 2006 at piazza Valdo Fusi, in the city centre and would remain open until March 20 at the conclusion of the Paralympic Winter Games. Aside from showcasing Canadian culture, the building would host meetings for companies from British Columbia and Italy who would be interested to develop business partnerships. The building would be donated to the city of Turin and would be transferred to a new city park after the Games.

During the closing ceremonies of these Games, there was a brief segment in which Canada delivered a preview of the 2010 Games. This included a choreographed program featuring Avril Lavigne, raising of the Canadian flag, and singing of O Canada by opera star Ben Heppner, himself a B.C. native. The handover of the Games was highlighted by Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan, a quadriplegic, accepting and waving the Olympic flag. Aside from the flag handed from the mayor of Turin Sergio Chiamparino, the City of Vancouver is now the custodian of the actual Olympic flag lowered at Stadio Olimpico during the closing ceremonies.

British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell, himself a Vancouver native, and Governor General Michaëlle Jean attended the Games' competitions and closing ceremonies. They also availed themselves to the news media, sharing their thoughts about British Columbia and Canada welcoming the world in 2010. The federal government was represented by the attendance of Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay at the closing ceremonies.

A number of Canadian citizens with dual citizenship have competed for other countries and served as their respective flag bearers:
* Dale Begg-Smith carried the flag of Australia during the closing ceremonies
* Tugba Karademir carried the flag of Turkey during the opening ceremonies
* Mathieu Razanakolona carried the flag of Madagascar during the opening and closing ceremonies as the sole competitor of the country

In Ottawa, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, himself from a Canadian Olympic city, Calgary, which hosted the 1988 Winter Olympics, said in a statement that the Olympic flame had begun the journey to Vancouver. [http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/media.asp?id=1034]

Notes

*2006 was the first year since 1988 that Canada had athletes competing in Nordic Combined and the first since 1992 that Canada had athletes in Ski Jumping.
*While skiing in the final of the Women's Team Sprint in Cross Country Skiing, Sara Renner broke her ski pole. Fortunately, a coach immediately handed her a new pole. It was later revealed that the coach was not from Canada, but from Norway. Sara Renner and her partner Beckie Scott went on to win a Silver medal in the event. Ironically, the Norwegian team finished fourth, so people conclude that if not for the coach then perhaps it would have been Norway that won a medal and not Canada.
*Lascelles Brown, who previously competed for Jamaica, competed for Canada in bobsleigh. He would go on to win a silver medal in Two-man bobsleigh with partner Pierre Lueders.

References

External links

* [http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/athletes/athletesbysport.shtml Athletes by sport - CBC]