Monday, July 10, 2017

Canada 150: Olympic Memories

Saluting 150+ Olympians for Canada's 150th Anniversary. The final 150 post is dedicated to the Olympians who have won a medal on home soil.

109 individual athletes have won medals with eight of those athletes winning more than one medal.

68 athletes won the 26 gold medals in Vancouver and heard O Canada at a home Olympics. I was lucky enough to be in the crowd when we won our first one.



It's easy to compare the 5 medals at the 1988 Olympics to the 26 medals in 2010 and think that our Olympians are that much better but in a previous blog post, I compared the 1988 Olympics with the 2014 Olympics results. What I found is that the Olympics have changed, not necessarily our performance.

If the 2014 Olympics only had the 1988 sports, Canada would have won 5 medals - 3 silver and 2 bronze. At least at the 2010 Olympics, we would have had two gold medals on home soil. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir in figure skating and Christina Nesbitt in speed skating would have heard our national anthem on home soil. In total, the 2010 team would have won seven medals in the 1988 sports. You can read my full blog post here.

So here's to the Canadian Olympians who reached the podium at home.

1976 Montreal Olympics: 11 medals

Silver:


  • Greg Joy - Athletics, High Jump
  • John Wood - Canoeing, C-1 500m
  • Michel Vaillancourt - Equestrian, Individual Jumping Grand Prix
  • Cheryl Gibson - Swimming, 400m Individual Medley
  • Stephen Pickell, Graham Smith, Clay Evans, Gary MacDonald - Swimming, 4x100m Medley Relay

Bronze:

  • Nancy Garapick - Swimming, 100m Backstroke
  • Nancy Garapick - Swimming, 200m Backstroke
  • Shannon Smith - Swimming, 400m Freestyle
  • Becky Smith - Swimming, 400m Individual Medley
  • Gail Amundrud, Barbara Clark, Becky Smith, Anne Jardin - Swimming, 4x100m Freestyle Relay
  • Wendy Cook, Robin Corsiglia, Susan (Smith) Kelsey, Anne Jardin - Women's 4x100m Medley Relay

1988 Calgary Olympics: 5 medals

Silver:

  • Brian Orser - Figure Skating
  • Elizabeth Manley - Figure Skating

Bronze: 

  • Karen Percy - Alpine Skiing, Downhill
  • Karen Percy - Alpine Skiing, Super-G
  • Tracy Wilson, Robert McCall - Figure Skating, Ice Dancing

2010 Vancouver Olympics: 26 medals

Gold:

Alexandre Bilodeau - Freestyle Skiing, Moguls
Maëlle Ricker - Snowboard Cross
Christine Nesbitt - Speed Skating, 1000m
Jon Montgomery - Skeleton
Scott Moir, Tessa Virtue - Figure Skating, Ice Dancing
Ashleigh McIvor - Freestyle Skiing, Ski Cross
Kaillie Humphries, Heather Moyse - Bobsleigh
Ice Hockey - Women (21 players)
Charles Hamelin - Short Track, 500m
Guillaume Bastille, Charles Hamelin, François Hamelin, Olivier Jean, François-Louis Tremblay - Short Track, 5000m relay
Mathieu Giroux, Lucas Makowsky, Denny Morrison - Speed Skating, Team Pursuit
Jasey-Jay Anderson - Snowboarding, Parallel Giant Slalom
Adam Enright, Ben Hebert, Marc Kennedy, Kevin Martin, John Morris - Curling
Ice Hockey - Men (23 players)

Silver:

Jennifer Heil - Freestyle Skiing, Moguls
Mike Robertson - Snowboard Cross
Marianne St-Gelais - Short Track, 500m
Kristina Groves - Speed Skating, 1500m
Jessica Gregg, Kalyna Roberge, Marianne St-Gelais, Tania Vicent - Short Track, 3000m relay
Shelley-Ann Brown, Helen Upperton - Bobsleigh
Cori Bartel, Cheryl Bernard, Carolyn Darbyshire, Kristie Moore, Susan O'Connor - Curling

Bronze:

Kristina Groves - Speed Skating, 3000m
Clara Hughes - Speed Skating, 5000m
Joannie Rochette - Figure Skating
François-Louis Tremblay - Short Track, 500m
David Bissett, Lascelles Brown, Chris Le Bihan, Lyndon Rush - Bobsleigh