2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics: Canada's Golden Gold Medal Girls

One of the many Olympic Games radio commentators was heard to proclaim that it was a good thing Canada had fielded so many women's team and female athletes, as they were responsible for the majority of the medals in Canada's roster - Ski-Cross, 2-Man Bobsleigh, Figure Skating, Ice Dance, Ice Hockey, Curling, Speed Skating - of the 26 medals won by Canadians at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, 15 have been won by Canada's women athletes.

Canadian men took two more gold medals after this writing - one in Curling and one in Ice Hockey, to bring our total for the games to 14 gold medals, and breaking the record for the most gold medals ever won by a host country's athlete's. The list of medals for our ladies is most impressive, as well. Not only have they totally abolished the "home turf" curse, and clearly shown that Canadian athletes can win medals in their homeland, they have broken records in the doing.

Ice Hockey - Three-time winners of Olympic gold. This amazing team started their quest for Olympic gold at a special training camp in Dawson Creek. This gold medal caps a triple crown that started in 1998, in Nagano, with a silver medal, and led to gold in Salt Lake City in 2006, gold again in Turin in 2006, and, finally, gold in Vancouver in 2010.

Bobsleigh - Canada's Heather Moyse and Kaillie Humphries turned in a decisive victory in the two-man event with a times of 3:32:28, a scant .85 seconds ahead of their compatriots, another Canadian team, and 1.12 seconds ahead of the bronze medal winning American pair.

Freestyle Skiing - Ashleigh McIvor, who skis out of Whistler Mountain Ski Club in Whistler BC. She started skiing in 1985 when she was two, and started ski cross racing in 2003.

Figure Skating: Ice Dance - Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. After a flawless original program, they skated inot Olympic history by winning Canada's first ever gold medal in Ice Dance.

Speed Skating: 1000 Meters - Christine Nesbitt burned up the oval track putting in a gold medal win with a time of 1:16.56, a bare .02 seconds between second and first place, between the gold medal and the silver

Snowboard Cross - Four women started the final heat on Cypress Mountain, but Maelle Ricker quickly established a convincing lead, and went on to win gold against a field that included racers from France (silver), Switzerland (bronze), and Norway.

Curling - In a close game that went into an extra end, Sweden stole a point from Team Canada to take the Gold medal. The hotly contested game, tied at 6 points each, had one of the highest viewer ratings since the Ice Dance competition, and was a tight, hard-fought game right up to the last rock. Canada missed an opportunity to make a deuce in the tenth end, and then missed on a double take-out, leaving the Swedes counting 1 for the gold.

Bobsleigh - Canada delivered a one-two punch to take the podium with both gold and silver medals in Two-Man Bobsleigh event. Team mates Shelley-Ann Brown, and Helen Upperton joined Canada 1 in celebrating a double win.

Short-Track Speed Skating: Relay - Jessica Gregg, Kalyna Roberge, Marianne St-Gelais, and Tania Vincent posted a combined time of 4:09.137 to place second to China.

Short-Track Speed Skating: 500 Meters - Marianne St-Gelais blazed around the oval track in 43.241 seconds to win her second medal of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games, winning a silver medal in both the team relay and individual events.

Speed Skating 1500 Meters - Kristina Groves showed the world what she was made of with her amazing skate to the podium. Her time of 1:57.14 seconds was a scant .25 seconds off the leader, to win her the silver medal.

Freestyle Skiing: Moguls - Jennifer Heil was a free-style swimmer, competing at the provincial level before taking up competitive skiing. Her performance at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics gained her the silver medal.

Figure Skating - Joannie Rochette's Olympic Games were a triumph of courage and focus in the face of personal tragedy. After skating a flawless short program, two small technical slips were enough to knock her into third place but not off the podium, showing the heart and spirit of this courageous young woman. Joannie was one of the winners of this Olympic's Terry Fox Award.

Speed Skating: 3000 Meters - Kristina Groves, who skates at the Ottawa Pacers Club in Ontario, capped off her 2010 Vancouver Olympics with two medals - a silver medal in Short Track (1500 meters) and a bronze in this event.

Speed Skating: 5000 Meters - Clara Hughes skated in her last Olympics in Vancouver, and claimed the Bronze medal as a memento of her final race. A member of the Canadian cycling team from 1991 to 2003, Clara won two bronze medals in cycling at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. For many years she competed in two sports at an elite level, but finally in 2003 she gave up competitive biking for speed skating.

In the words of Canada's national anthem, we do indeed watch our ladies take the podium to set our hearts on fire with admiration for them, and love for the great country that helped make them the fierce, successful competitors they are.

Shine on, ladies!

© 2010, Elle Fredine, All rights reserved