Torino 2006 - That's it

That's it! The 2006 Winter Olympic Games are now over with the greatest Canadian performance in history. 24 medals, one short of the COC objective. I told you that there was no reason to panic like the medias did after 5 days ;-) With 24 medals, Canada finishes 5th in the ranking with its 7 gold medals but if we only count the medals, it is the 3rd place behind Germany (29 medals) and USA (25 medals). But what is not showing in the rankings are the 13 fourth places which make Canada the champions of the 'wood' medal.

Another interesting statistic is that 40% of the medals hopes succeeded which is a lot better than the 22% of Salt Lake City.

So it looks very good for Vancouver 2010. Cindy Klassen, the Queen of these Games with 5 medals, already announced that she will be there as most of the medals and 4th places holders. And with the 110 million dollars promised by the Canadian government for the next 4 years, no wonder that the COC has already fixed and objective of 35 medals... and the 1st place for Vancouver 2010.

 

Wayne's World - Not excellent

No I am not talking about Mike Myer's character in Saturday Night Life but rather the 'fiasco' of the canadian hockey team in Turin. Remember that I told you that Gretzky didn't select the best players for Team Canada? Nevertheless I was still believing that this team was able to win. I was wrong. If these guys play above their head for 2 weeks, they can pull it out. After all, they did it in Salt Lake City. But they didn't in Nagano and Turin. And this is the sad record of Wayne's era as a GM of Team Canada.: 1 medal in 3 olympics in what is supposed to be Canada's game.

While watching the young Ovechkin giving hockey lessons to the Canadian defense players who were getting dizzy running after him, I was thinking about the Crosby, Tanguay, Staal, Speeza, Phaneuf that were sitting home watching their teamates unable to score goals.

The good news about this lost is that it probably means the end of Wayne Gretzky's era and his friends. It also means, I sure hope, that it was the last time we saw Pat Quinn behind Team Canada's bench. I never considered Quinn as a good coach. Yesterday, I got the confirmation that he is not only a bad coach, he is a lousy coach. Even a pee-wee coach (no offense to pee-wee coaches) knows that you don't put a line with Bertuzzi, Thornton, and Doane in the 3rd period of a 'no-tomorrow' game when you need to score goals. Come on!

Anyway, let's hope that Hockey Canada will take lessons of that. And the first lesson they should take is considering replacing Bob Nicholson at the head of Hockey Canada.

Anyway, Canada is still doing great in Turin with 19 medals which is a record and more are still coming with 3 days left.

 

4th place festival!

If the 2006 Winter Olympics games end today, Canada will certainly win the 4th place festival ;-) As of today, 9 athletes finished short of a bronze medal.

- François Bourque at 0,72 s in Giant slalom
- Érik Guay at 0,10 s in Super-G
- Kelly VanderBeek at 0,03 s in Super-G
- Helen Upperton et Heather Moyse at 0,05 s in 2-place bobsleigh
- Marc-André Moreau at 0,68 points in moguls freestyle skiing
- Paul Boehm at 0,26 s in skeleton
- Maëlle Ricker felt in the final race but finished 4th in boarder cross
- Charles Hamelin at 0,37 s in 1500m short track speed skating
- Kalyna Roberge finished 4th after winning the B final race in 500m short track speed skating

And just this morning, Beckie Scott finished 4th at 0,9 s while her teamate, Chandra Crawford won gold in the cross country skiing sprint.

At the end of the games, when everybody and their mothers will analyse Canadian results, we should consider these athletes because in my opinion, they didn't loose. They just got beaten by 3 athletes who happened to be a couple of hundred of seconds faster this single day. Sport is beautiful but it is also cruel. Maybe that is just what makes it beautiful after all ;-)

 

Torino 2006 - Day 10

How things change! In a couple of days, we went from 4 to 14 medals. Now we're talking ;-)


Without a surprise, Canada won gold in women ice hockey. The surprise went from their opponents in final. While they were expecting USA, it is Sweden that showed up. Sweden beat the americans 3-2 in penalty shots. Canada won 4-1 in final and USA ended up with the bronze. So what used to be a 2 teams tournament ended up with a 3 teams tournament and maybe a fourth one because Finland is looking good also. It is good news for women ice hockey.

On the men side, it is not that pretty. They lost their 2 previous games by identical scores, 2-0, against Switzerland and Finland. And today, they hardly won against Czech Republic, 3-2, thanks to Martin Brodeur. They finish 3rd in their pool and will play 2nd place of the other pool in quarter-finals. Switzerland will finish 2nd and Czech Republic 4th. Germany and Italy are eliminated. In the other pool, today's games will decided the ranking between Slovania, Russia, and Sweden. USA is fourth and will play against Finland in quarter-finals. Lettonia and Kazakhstan are eliminated.

The big star so far for Canada is definitely Cindy Klassen.
She won 3 medals in long track speed skating. Silver in the 1000m and pursuit and bronze in the 300m.

 

Torino 2006 - Day 4

Well, only 1 medal in the last 2 days (for a total of 4) and already the medias are panicking and asking questions: did the Canadian Olympic Commitee (COC) put the bar too high with 25 medals?

Personally, I don't think there is any reason to panic simply because there are still a lot of events coming and there are not that many deceptions yet in Canadian performances.

First, the medal. A bronze in the 500m women short track speed skating. While the medal wasn't a surprise, the medal holder was. As we were expecting Kalyna Roberge, it is Anouk Leblanc-Boucher who took over.
Anouk passed by Chinese Tyaniu Fu to finish 3rd behind Chinese Meng Wang and Bulgarian Evgenia Radanova.





The biggest deception yet is probably Jeremy Wootherspoon who finished 9th in the 500m long track speed skating. While he was only at 0,03 seconds of the 3rd place after the first race, he completly missed the second one.

We also had our share of bad luck. Alyson Forsyth injured her knee in training in the descent. Marc-André Moreau finished 4th in the moguls freestyle skiing only 0,6 points short of a bronze. Alexandre Bilodeau finished 11th in the same event when he slightly put his hand on the ground after an incredible 1080 degrees off-axis spin.

There are only 2 skiers in the world who do this jump (the other one is an american who didn't qualify for the Olympics). Unfortunately, the judges are not rewarding innovative and high risk manoeuvers and penalized highly Alexandre for his touch. On the other hand, the winner, Australian Dale Begg-Smith, did a pretty conservative descent but with no fault. Oddly enough, Begg-Smith is a Canadian who moved in Australia to start a multi-million internet business with his brother. At only 18 years old, Alexandre Bilodeau will be the one to watch in the coming years.

Men ice hockey tournament started and yet we already have 3 major surprises. No, it is not the Canadians who easily won against another Canadian team, 7-2. Well, it was officially the Italian team but most of the team, starting with the coach, come from Canada. They are mostly former junior hockey players and garage league players who realized a dream by playing against professional players. And they did pretty well I might add.
The 3 upsets are the USA team who tied 3-3 against Lettonia, Slovenia who beat Russia 5-3, and Swiss who beat the Czech Republic 3-2.

What's coming in the next days? First a last minute news about a protest made from Canada in the 500m short track speed skating against the Bulgarian skater who apparently raised her skate at the finish line which is forbidden. If Canada wins its protest, that will give silver medal to Anouk Leblanc-Boucher and bronze to Kalyna Roberge. I'll keep you informed on that. Also, long track speed skating, curling ans ice hockey.

 

Torino 2006 - Day 2

Here's a resume of the first 2 days for Canadian athletes.

As expected, Jennifer Heil won a gold medal in moguls freestyle skiing.

She beat Norvegian Kari Traa and French Sandra Laoura. Other Canadians Kristi Richards, Audrey Robichaud and Stéphanie St-Pierre finished respectively 7th, 8th, and 12th. it is the first time in history that a Canadian women wins olympic gold in freestyle skiing. Jean-Luc Brassard was the only Canadian olympic champion.

In long track speed skating, Cindy Klassen won bronze in the 3000m.

Cindy started to fast and went out of gas at the end costing her the gold medal. Netherlands Ireen Wust and Renate Groenewold won gold and silver. Wust came out of nowhere to win gold and Groenewold was the vice-champion from Salt Lake City.

In short track speed skating, Mathieu Turcotte didn't make the final as well as American Apollo Anton Ohno. But Charles Hamelin did. Unfortunately he finished fourth after being pushed by a chinese skater helping his teamate finish 3rd. Ye Li was disqualified but the harm was done. Call it team playing or unsportsman misconduct; I'll let you be the judge of that.

In women ice hockey, Canada is dominating its opponents beating Italy 16-0 and Russia 12-0. Surprisingly, the players received complaints... from Canadian citizens! Go figure.

In cross-country skiing, Beckie Scott, who won gold in Salt Lake City, finished 6th in the 15 km pursuit.

In day 3, we should watch Jeremy Wotherspoon in the 500m sprint in long track speed skating where he will try to put aside his fall in Salt Lake City. The curling tournament is also starting today for the men as well as the couple competition in figure skating.

 

It's a start

There we go. The 2006 Winter Olympic Games are now officially opened. I watched the opening ceremonies with a friend of mine who was in the canadian coaching staff in the 2004 games in Athens. And as he told me: "Mario, you can't realize how big it is until you've been there. At 50 years old, I tought I've seen everything and I didn't believe people telling me how great it is. When you enter the stadium, you can't help yourself; your arms raise by themself." And by the look in his eyes while we were watching the ceremonies, he was still feeling it. Great ceremonies by the way. How do they come up with these ideas for the lightning of the flame? Where will it stop? If I were the next producer of the ceremonies I would surprise everybody: back to the roots... use a lighter ;-)))

Canadian team is having a tough debut. We have Eric Guay, who was a medal contender, that will not be part of the downhill race this sunday because of his injury. He is suppose to do the Super G tough. We'll see. We have also the now called "Gretzky's betting affair" that is taking all of the medias attention. And now we have Sean Crooks, a cross-country skier, who has been tested positive for high haemoglobin as well as 7 other skiers. He is suspended for the pursuit in Sunday and has to lower his haemoglobin rate if he wants to take part at the other races.

Anyway, for the 1st day, we have Jennifer Heil, in freestyle skiing that can win the first medal for Canada. Her only serious opponents for gold will be Norvegian Kari Traa, the holding olympic champion, and American Michelle Roark. We should also watch for Stéphanie St-Pierre and Kristi Richards for possible medals.

 

Torino 2006

The Olympic Games are always a great event in our family. With my wife and my 3 daughters, we become, for 2 weeks, coach potatoes ;-) And with a few days left before the Winter Games of Turin, we are ready. But is it the case with the Canadian team?

Let to me present you my small analysis of the Canadian team which will be represented by approximately 200 athletes. In all, 2500 athletes will take part in the Games in Turin or rather, in Torino since exceptionally, the organizing committee of the Games of Turin succeeded in obtaining from the IOC that the city is indicated in its original language.

The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) has an objective to rise to the 3rd place within the countries with a harvest of 26 medals. Let us note that the best performance of Canada was in 2002, in Salt Lake City, with 17 medals. With that in mind, is 26 medals a realistic objective? According to Shane Pearsall, head of mission of the Canadian delegation, the results obtained at the various world championships of last winter and the performances obtained to date, this winter, enable us to believe it. One cannot doubt, either, that Canada will put the package for surrounding its athletes because next Winter Games, in 2010, will take place in Vancouver and there, the unofficial objective is to finish first.

Thus let us start with the sure values: ice hockey. As much the men and the women should gain the gold medal. Even if Wayne Gretzky did not put together the best possible team for these Games preferring Shane Doan, Todd Bertuzzi, Chris Draper, and Joe Thornton to Sydney
Crosby, Eric Staal, Jason Spezza, and Patrice Bergeron, Canada will succeed in gaining gold. If they don't, Gretzky will have certainly to answer several questions. For the women, it is not very complicated since there is Canada, the United States... and the others. Canada dominated the pre-Olympic tournament in November in Turin and I don't see how the Americans could beat them as they have failed in Salt Lake City in spite of an American referee who did not hesitate to post her preference... to say the least.

In Alpine skiing, the performances of Canada in the World cup this year allow us the greatest hopes. Presently, the Canadians are 2nd rank of all the countries for the number of medals gained out of World cup, preceded only by the Germans, with 128 medals in 372 races. Among the hopes of medals, one finds Genevieve Simard, Éric Guay, François Bourque, and Thomas Grandi. Unfortunately, Guay is wounded at present and did not take part in the last race in Chamonix. The medical team puts all the efforts to allow him to take part in the Games but this
wound could affect its performances.

In freestyle skiing, it seems that the hollow lived by skiers since the beautiful time of the Quebec Air Force is passed. The Marc-André Moreau, Alexandre Bilodeau, Vincent Marquis, and Jean-François Therrien will be to watch. And one should not forget the veteran,
Pierre-Alexandre Rousseau, who had broken his neck in 2002, right before the Games of Salt Lake City, where he was leading the world cup. Whereas it was predicted to him that it could not walk any more, there he is again at the point where he was in 2002. For the girls, current world champion, Jennifer Heil and Stéphanie St-Pierre will be the greatest hopes of medal.

In short track speed skating, the 4 skaters who will take part of the individual races have all the potential to climb on the podium. They are Éric Bédard, Mathieu Turcotte, François-Louis Tremblay, and Charles Hamelin. Their most serious rivals are... themselves. As well as the
Koreans and American Apolo Anton Ohno. If the men skaters are experimented, the women skaters will all be at their first Games except for Tania Vicent double bronze medal-holder of the relay in Nagano and Salt Lake City. Her three teammates are Anouk Leblanc-Boucher, KalynaRoberge, Amanda Overland, and Alanna Kraus. The favorites will be the Koreans but the Canadians could surprise.

In long track speed skating, Clara Hugues, Cindy Klassen, and Jeremy Wotherspoon could offer the best results since Gaetan Boucher in Sarajevo in 1984 and this, in spite of the retirement of Catherina Lemay-Doan. Clara Hugues will be to watch at the 5000 meters in which she won bronze in Salt Lake City. Also Olympic medal-holder in cycling, Clara will certainly be able to take advantage of her capacity to endure the inevitable suffering of the long distances. Cindy
Klassen currently holds the world records in the 1500 meters and the 3000 meters. Another which holds an impressive record is Jeremy Whoterspoon: 55 victories out of World cup! Whoterspoon is on a mission since it lived the unthinkable in Salt Lake City in 2002. Big favorite, he felt at the beginning of the fianl race. Still today, he does not know what occurred. In Turin, he could very well climb on the podium in the 500 meters and the 1000 meters... if he
stays on his feet of course ;-)

In the other sports to watch for medals, we have the snowboarding with Jaycee-Jay Andersen, male and female curling, bobsleigh and skeleton. One can thus note that the possibilities of obtaining 26 medals are there. However, I could speculate for years, it will be at the time of
the competitions that we will have the real answers. Because everything goes in sport; that is what makes its beauty.

Good Games!

For more informations on the 2006 Winter Olympics Games, get The Complete Book of the Winter Olympics - Turin 2006