Winter Olympic Games Lake Placid, USA, 1932
Canada sent a record 59 athletes to the 1932 Games at Lake Placid, New York, and the team came away with 13 performances in the top six. Only the U.S. and Norway won more medals.
Three Canadian speed skaters, Alex Hurd, William Logan and Frank Stack, won a total of one silver and four bronze medals. Canadian champion Montgomery Wilson brought home a bronze medal in men’s figure skating, and the hockey team again won gold, but this time it wasn’t as easy.
Adding to its string of Olympic gold medals, Canada had won the world hockey championship in 1930 and 1931. In Lake Placid, the Winnipeg Hockey Club defeated the U.S. 2-1 in the first game of the tournament. Both teams went on to defeat their two other opponents and met once again in the final. Canada needed a win or a tie to retain the gold medal. With less than six minutes remaining in the final game, the U.S. was leading 2-1 when Canada’s Romeo Rivers bounced a shot past the U.S. goaltender to tie the score. In three overtime periods, neither team could score and the game was called. The Canadians were declared Olympic hockey champions once again.
Source: olympic.ca
Winter Olympic Games Garmisch, Germany, 1936
The world federation, by attributing the 1936 Winter Olympics to Germany, certified peace with this European country. Adolph Hitler opened the last games for a 12 year period. For the first time, the Olympic flame burned at the Winter Olympics too.
The king of the Garmisch-Partenkirchen games was Ivar Bellagrund, winning three gold medals in speed skating. In his career, he won a total of seven Olympic medals. For the first time, alpine skiing was part of the Olympic program. The host country won four medals, two of them were gold in the only event, the combined alpine. Franz Pfnür and Gustav Lantschner finished first and second on the men’s side, while Christl Cranz and Kathe Grasegger did the same on the women’s side. Canadian skier Diana Gordon-Lennox captured the eye of the crowd skiing with one arm in a cast and only one pole. She finished 29th.
Canada’s strongest contender for a gold medal was again its hockey team. But before the hockey competition began, there was a furious debate over eligibility. Great Britain’s team included a great many players with British-Canadian dual citizenship. Ten of the 12 members of the British team had moved to Canada as children and learned the game in their adoptive country. The only Canadian-born player was the defenceman Gordon Dailley (born in Winnipeg), who played for a long period in the British league. Two of the recruited players had not received the proper transfer papers from the Canadian Association. One of them was goaltender Jimmy Foster who, in seven games, recorded four shutouts and allowed just three goals. Canada filed a protest, but was defeated, both by the International Ice Hockey federation and Great Britain.
The loss marked Canada’s first in Olympic hockey history. The Canadian team would have won the gold medal if the U.S. had beaten Britain in the last game of the tournament, but after three overtime periods, the final score was 0-0. Britain won gold, Canada silver.
Source: olympic.ca
Winter Olympic Games St. Moritz, Switzerland, 1948
World War II forced the cancellation of the Summer and Winter Games in 1940 and 1944. So when the flag was raised in St. Moritz in January 1948, Olympic athletes gathered for the first time in more than eleven years.
The RCAF Flyers were determined to bring the Olympic hockey title back to Canada. After seven games, the Flyers had six wins and a scoreless tie against Czechoslovakia. The Czechs had played all eight of their games and, except for the tie against Canada, had won them all. Canada’s final game was against Switzerland, which had six wins against only one loss. Canada had to win by two goals to finish ahead of Czechoslovakia. Canada scored once in each period to win the game 3-0 and once again take home the gold.
Skating on the outdoor ice badly chewed up by the hockey competition were the figure skaters. The Canadian pairs champions, Suzanne Morrow and Wally Distelmeyer, won the bronze medal. Also skating for Canada was a 19-year-old from Ottawa, Barbara Ann Scott. As Canada’s first world champion figure skater in 1947, Barbara Ann had won the hearts of Canadians. In St. Moritz, she won the hearts of the world. After building an impressive lead in compulsory figures, she exploded in a dazzling display in her free skating routine to win the Olympic gold medal and become the first North American to win the title.
Source: olympic.ca
Winter Olympic Games Oslo, Norway, 1952
At the 1952 Games in Oslo, Canada was represented on the hockey rink by the Edmonton Mercurys. The Mercurys won their first seven games and ended the tournament with a 3-3 tie against a strong U.S. team. The tie won the gold medal for Canada. Canada wouldn’t capture gold again in hockey for 50 years.
Canadian speed skater Gordon Audley won a bronze in the 500 meter event. It was at this rink that Hjalmar Andersen dominated, capturing 3 of the 4 Olympic titles on the line.
Source: olympic.ca
Winter Olympic Games Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, 1956
In 1956, it was Italy’s turn to host the 7th edition of the Winter Olympics. For the first time, a woman, Giuliana Minuzzo, read the Olympic oath.
Canadian athletes won three medals at the Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo. Lucile Wheeler won Canada’s first skiing medal with a bronze in downhill. On these slopes, a new idol was born. Austrian Toni Sailer recorded the first grand slam, winning all events by a wide margin. In the giant slalom, he finished six seconds ahead of his closest pursuer.
The other medals for Canada came from Frances Dafoe and Norris Bowden, who won silver in pairs figure skating, and the Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen, who took the bronze medal in hockey. Making its first Winter Olympic appearance, the Soviet Union breezed through the hockey tournament unbeaten.
Source: olympic.ca
Winter Olympic Games Squaw Valley, USA, 1960
Eight of the 56 Canadian athletes who participated in the 1960 Games in Squaw Valley, California, were figure skaters. Canadian champion Donald Jackson won the bronze medal in men’s singles, Otto and Maria Jelinek finished fourth in pairs competition, and another Canadian pair added a gold medal to a string of international successes: Barbara Wagner and Robert Paul put on a marvelous skating display highlighted by a breathtaking death spiral that won them first place votes from every judge. A few days after their Olympic gold medal performance, the pair won their fourth consecutive world championship.
Anne Heggtveit, who at the age of 21 had 14 years of competitive skiing behind her, became the first Canadian to win a gold medal in skiing by crossing the finish line 3.3 seconds ahead of her nearest rival.
When the United States beat Canada 2-1 on the hockey rink, it was the Canadian team’s only loss of the tournament, but it was enough to drop Canada to the silver medal position behind the U.S.
Source: olympic.ca
Winter Olympic Games Innsbruck, Austria, 1964
The weather in Innsbruck, Austria in February 1964 was the mildest the popular sport centre had experienced in 58 years. Three thousand Austrian soldiers hauled 40,000 cubic meters of snow to the ski courses.
For the first time, Canadians took part in the bobsleigh competition. On the first run of the day, the team of Vic and John Emery, Peter Kirby and Doug Anakin streaked to a new course record, giving them a lead they would hold throughout the competition. After the completion of the fourth run, Canada’s total time was more than a second better than the second place Austrian sled. In a sport decided by fractions of second, the margin of victory was remarkable.
Bronze medals were brought home by Canadian figure skaters Petra Burka and the pairs team of Debbi Wilkes and Guy Revell.
Russian speed skater Lydia Skoblokova added four gold medals to the two she had already won four years before. Her six golds made her the first Winter athlete to reach this total and the first athlete to win four gold in a single Winter Olympic Games.
Source: olympic.ca
Winter Olympic Games Grenoble, France, 1968
Of the nearly 1,300 athletes who met in Grenoble, France in 1968 for the Xth Olympic Winter Games, 70 were Canadians. For Nancy Greene, it was her third Olympic Winter Games. In Squaw Valley in 1960, she finished 22nd in the downhill, and in Innsbruck in 1964 she finished 7th in the downhill and 15th in the slalom. Inspired by her 1967 World Cup title, Nancy took gold in the giant slalom and silver in the slalom, attacking each course with a ferocity that earned her the nickname “The Tiger”. Frenchman Jean-Claude Killy managed a grand slam by winning the downhill, giant slalom and special slalom events.
Canada’s hockey team finished the Olympic tournament with five wins and two losses, winning a bronze medal.
Source: olympic.ca
Winter Olympic Games Sapporo, Japan, 1972
In 1972, the Japanese spent a record amount to stage the Games in Sapporo. Canada’s only medal was silver, won by Karen Magnussen in figure skating.
A Dutch and a Soviet athlete shared stardom. Adrianus Schenk won 3 gold medals in speed skating, while Galina Kulakova did the same in cross country skiing.
Source: olympic.ca
Winter Olympic Games Innsbruck, Austria, 1972
Canadians won three medals, one of each colour, at the 1976 Games in Innsbruck. Toller Cranston, Canada’s champion men’s figure skater every year since 1971, won a bronze. Speed skater Cathy Priestner was one of five skaters to break Olympic records, taking a silver medal in the 500 m event.
The gold medal performance came from 19-year-old Kathy Kreiner, whose best Olympic performance had been 14th place in the slalom four years earlier. West Germany’s Rosi Mittermaier had already won the gold medals in downhill and slalom and she was aiming for the giant slalom gold. But Kathy streaked across the finish line 12 one-hundredths of a second ahead of Mittermaier. The greatest tribute to the gold medalist came from Mittermaier, who said, “I didn’t lose, I was beaten.”
Source: olympic.ca
Winter Olympic Games Lake Placid, USA, 1980
The men’s ski team put themselves on the Canadian Olympic medal chart when the Games returned to Lake Placid in 1980. Steve Podborski, one of the Crazy Canucks, won a bronze in the downhill competition. In the 1000 m speed skating race, 21-year-old Gaétan Boucher, who finished sixth in the event at the last Olympic Winter Games, shattered the old Olympic record by a second and a half. Still, he finished second to Eric Heiden of the U.S.A., the first Olympic athlete, summer or winter, to win five gold medals in individual events.
Source: olympic.ca
Winter Olympic Games Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, 1984
Canadian figure skater Brian Orser faced an exceptionally keen field of competitors at the 1984 Games in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. But the Canadian champion pulled off a silver medal, the best finish ever by a Canadian man in Olympic figure skating. The British couple of Jane Torvill and Christopher Dean mesmerized the world with their performance of Ravel’s Bolero.
In the 500 m speed skating race, Gaétan Boucher, flag bearer for the Canadian team during the opening ceremony, won a bronze medal, one tenth of a second away from silver, two tenths of a second from gold. In the 1000 m race, he beat arch rival Sergei Khlebnikov of the Soviet Union by eight-tenths of a second to win the gold medal. And in the 1500 m, Gaétan won the gold by half a second, again ahead of Khlebnikov. Added to the silver he won four years earlier, these four medals were the most ever won by a Canadian winter Olympian, until 2002. From coast to coast, Gaétan Boucher became a household name.
Source: olympic.ca
Winter Olympic Games Calgary, Canada, 1988
In 1988, Calgary hosted the first Winter Olympics held on Canadian soil. Delegations from around the world were greeted with traditional Western Canadian hospitality and top quality facilities and organization.
Three of the five medals won by Canadian athletes in front of the hometown crowds came from figure skaters. Elizabeth Manley and Brian Orser each won silver while the dance duo of Tracy Wilson and Robert McCall skated to a bronze medal. Alpine skier Karen Percy earned the other two medals with bronze medal runs in the women’s downhill and Super G.
The medals only tell part of the story, though. The Canadian team finished with a record 19 top-eight finishes — almost double the total four years earlier in Sarajevo. Our athletes in the demonstration sports of curling, short track speed skating and freestyle skiing also proved themselves, recording three firsts, six seconds and five thirds. After the successes in Calgary, short track and the moguls event in freestyle skiing were given official medal status on the Olympic program.
Source: olympic.ca
Winter Olympic Games Albertville, France, 1992
With seven medals, Canada equaled the high set in Lake Placid in 1932, won medals in more sports than ever before (5), and had more top-eight finishes (21) in more sports (7) than previous teams.
Kerrin Lee-Gartner skied to victory over the demanding women's downhill course at Méribel, the first Canadian ever to win an Olympic downhill gold. With women's biathlon events making their debut at the Olympic Winter Games, Myriam Bédard brought home a bronze in the 15km event.
Then, the speed skaters took over. The women's short track 3000 m relay team skated away from the field for gold, Frédéric Blackburn took silver in the men's short track 1000 m, and followed it up two days later with another silver as part of the men's 5000 m relay team. On the last day of competition, the men’s hockey team ended a 24-year absence from the medal podium with silver.
Canadian athletes added another 14 top-eight placings, five new best-ever finishes, and three medals in the freestyle aerials and curling demonstration events. Both demonstration events were subsequently admitted to the official program; freestyle aerials to start in 1994 and curling in 1998.
Source: olympic.ca
Winter Olympic Games Lillehammer, Norway, 1994
The Olympic Winter Games returned to Norway for a second time. The 104-strong Canadian team turned in its best-ever Winter Games performance with 13 medals — three gold, six silver, four bronze — in seven sports, 15 best-ever results, and 34 top-eight finishes.
Biathlete Myriam Bédard was the toast of the games with her gold medals in the 7.5km and 15km, and was subsequently given the honour of Canadian team flag bearer for closing ceremonies.
Jean-Luc Brassard took gold in moguls, while veteran teammates Philippe Laroche and Lloyd Langlois finished first and second in the inaugural aerials event.
In speed skating, three-time Olympian Susan Auch won silver in the 500 m, while the short track team was responsible for three medals. The tenacious Nathalie Lambert took silver in the inaugural 1000 m and teamed up with Christine Boudrias, Isabelle Charest, and veteran Sylvie Daigle for another silver in the 3000 m relay. Marc Gagnon skated his way to bronze in the 1000 m.
In figure skating, Elvis Stojko captured silver while four-time Olympian Lloyd Eisler and three-time Olympian Isabelle Brasseur won their second Olympic pairs bronze medal.
Canada’s first medal at the Games came from skier Edi Podivinsky, whose bronze in the men’s downhill equaled Canada’s best ever performance in that event. Canada’s final medal of the Games came from the men’s hockey team on the last day. Canada came away with silver, after losing in an emotionally charged game and dramatic shoot-out to Sweden.
Source: olympic.ca
Winter Olympic Games Nagano, Japan, 1998
In 1998, Japan held the Winter Olympic Games for a second time. For Canada, it was the best Games ever with a total of 15 medals.
Women's hockey was presented for the first time. The Canadian team had never been defeated in World Championships before the Olympic venue. They suffered their first blow in the gold medal match, losing 3-1 to their arch rival, the United States. On the men’s side, Canada finished a disappointing fourth place.
Canada collected a total of 11 medals in curling and speed skating. Making their official debut, Canadian curlers won gold (women) and silver (men). Speed skater Catriona Le May Doan won gold in the 500 m, followed by teammate Susan Auch with silver. Le May Doan captured bronze in the 1000 m a few days later while Jeremy Wotherspoon and Kevin Overland placed second and third in the 500 m.
In short track, the men’s team came through on the last day, winning the relay gold. This last medal gave Canada the edge over the United States for the first time in Winter Olympics history.
For the first time ever, two teams tied for first place in the two-man bobsleigh. Canada's Pierre Lueders and Dave MacEachern shared the honour with the Italian pair of Huber and Tartaglia. Both the Canadian and Italian teams were handed the gold medals after four runs.
Ross Rebagliati won a controversial gold medal in snowboard while Elvis Stojko's courage brought him silver in figure skating.
Source: olympic.ca
Winter Olympic Games Salt Lake City, USA, 2002
The Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games saw the expansion of the Olympic programme to 78 events with the inclusion of skeleton and women’s bobsleigh. Canada also fielded its largest team to date with 157 athletes and took home their largest medal haul ever with 17 – seven gold, three silver and seven bronze.
Canada ended 50 years of frustration and beat the United States 5-2 to win its first men’s hockey gold medal in 50 years. Completing a gold medal sweep of the hockey events, the Canadian women also avenged their loss in Nagano by beating the USA 3-2.
Jamie Salé and David Pelletier of Canada wowed the crowd with their emotional free skate to “Love Story” leading many to believe they were a cinch to win the gold. Mouths dropped however when the Russian pair of Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze were awarded the gold, leaving the silver to Canada. Salé and Pelletier eventually went on to be awarded gold medals along with the Russians after a French judge admitted that she had voted for the Russians as part of a vote-swapping plan under pressure from her federation.
Almost overshadowed by the media frenzy surrounding the figure skating fiasco was the bronze medal won by Beckie Scott in cross country skiing – the first medal ever to be won by not only a Canadian, but a North American in the discipline. Scott’s medal was not without its own controversy however. Later in the Games, the gold and silver medalists in her event from Russia failed drug tests leading to a long two-year battle by Canadian officials to award the gold to Scott. First presented with a silver medal in October 2003, Scott was finally awarded the gold in June 2004 – making her the only athlete in Olympic history to win bronze, silver and gold in the same race.
Canada’s flagbearer, Catriona Le May Doan, won Canada’s first gold medal of the Games in the 500m, defending her title from Nagano, and becoming the first Canadian to defend a gold medal in an individual event at an Olympic Games.
Source: olympic.ca
Winter Olympic Games Turin, Italy, 2006
Canada’s contingent of 196 athletes (110 men, 86 women) in Turin represented the largest Canadian team ever sent to the Olympic Winter Games and the second largest team at the Games, behind only the United States of America with 211 athletes. The team achieved a best ever performance for Canada at an Olympic Winter Games and achieved the goal of a top three finish by placing third overall in the medal count with 24 medals after 16 days of competition, including seven gold, 10 silver and seven bronze medals.
On the first day of competition, Jennifer Heil (Freestyle Skiing) won the first-ever medal for Canada in the Women’s Moguls, and became the first Canadian woman to win a gold medal in Freestyle Skiing.
Canada won a total of eight medals in Long Track Speed Skating – two gold, four silver and two bronze. This is a record for most medals won in a single Olympic Winter Games by a single sport for Canada. Cindy Klassen became Canada’s most decorated Olympian ever by winning five medals at these Games to add to her previous medal won in 2002.
Canada won a total of four medals in Short Track Speed Skating with two athletes won multiple medals: Anouk Leblanc-Boucher (two) and François-Louis Tremblay (two).
Men’s curling won gold while women’s curling captured bronze. Since 1998, Canada has won medals in both events at every Olympic Winter Games – the only country to accomplish this feat.
The Canadian Women’s Hockey Team successfully defended its gold medal from 2002. The team has won medals in three consecutive Games.
Source: olympic.ca
Winter Olympic Games Vancouver, Canada, 2010
