Day 9

VANCOUVER — Denny Morrison epitomized the Canadian team’s feelings: dejection.

He was a forlorn figure gliding around the Richmond oval, a dark cloud hanging over his head, his face a mask of pain.

“Lost,” is how his coach described him.

On Day 9 of the 2010 Games, the pressure began to show on Canada’s athletes. Those who arrived with the heavy expectations of a country upon them were beginning to buckle.

Morrison, for one, was touted as a triple medal threat. He had failed to deliver.

He skated a deplorable 1,000-metre race and then finished ninth in his signature event, the 1,500.

All he could do was coast around the oval hanging his head.

“It goes back to the feeling that I don’t really know what it is that I’m not doing right or what I’m doing wrong,” the Fort St. John, B.C., skater lamented. “First two laps, great. Then, poof! It’s gone.”

For Canadians, it was Black Saturday.

Charles and Francois Hamelin swept the only non-medal positions in the five-man 1,000 metre final.

The Ste-Julie, Que., brothers had hoped to win at least one medal but were thrown off by the deafening crowd’s enthusiasm.

They jumped into a quick lead, looked to be on pace for a gold, but began to fade as the race wore on and, by the end, were not in contention.

“I thought I was at a good pace for the race,” a despondent Charles said. “But in the end, for the last two laps, I was just missing juice.”

It wasn’t much better at the sliding centre.

Bobsled medal favourites Lyndon Rush of Humboldt, Sask., and Calgary’s Lascelles Brown transformed their slide into the Poseidon Adventure, overturning the sled and skidding down the chute on their helmets.

In the women’s super G at Whistler, Emily Brydon of Fernie, B.C., wiped out hard.

“I feel like I’ve been in a train wreck,” she told reporters limping off the course.

“I’m going to have one giant whopping bruise on my butt. And it’s my left shin and my right arm. I won’t forget that one. Definitely not what I’d hoped or envisioned or planned.”

Her alpine teammates had their egos equally bruised. Shona Rubens of Calgary missed a gate and was disqualified.

Whistler’s Britt Janyk was the top Canadian at 17th, well behind Austrian Andrea Fischbacher’s gold-medal-winning time.

Georgia Simmerling of West Vancouver was 27th.

The cross-country skiers were also denied a podium finish.

Ivan Babikov, of Canmore, Alta., finished fifth in the men’s 30-kilometre pursuit.

It was a great achievement, but he was downcast.

“I’ve finished fifth in the world, but when you realize it, it was one chance to get a medal,” Babikov said.

“So close, yet so far.”

Unbelievably, after 30 kilometres, he finished only nine seconds behind Marcus Hellner, who won Sweden’s third gold of the Games.

In any other event, at any other time, the only tears that would have been shed over such a performance would have been tears of joy, but not when the hopes of a nation are riding on your shoulders.

For athletes such as Morrison, Babikov and the others, so close isn’t good enough.

Day 10

VANCOUVER —_Oh, Canada — not again.

The nation held its breath after Team USA upset the men’s hockey team 5-3, pushing them to the verge of elimination. At one of the most anticipated events of the 2010 Winter Olympics, the Americans bettered the vaunted Canadians.

When pressed afterward about the team’s chances now that it faced a must-win game to make the medal qualifying round, Canadian captain Scott Niedermayer grumbled: “It’s the situation we find ourselves in and we’ll try to make the best of it,”

Although subjected to unbelievable pressure from Team Canada’s superstars in the third period, USA netminder Ryan Miller was a veritable gymnast.

Canadian goalie Martin Brodeur was badly outplayed and failed to make the big stop when it counted.

Team Canada outshot the Americans 45-23.

It was not the outcome Sidney Crosby and his teammates desired.

For all intents and purposes, it was a lost weekend for Canada in spite of a silver medal win in long-track speedskating.

Kristina Groves of Ottawa won her second medal on the day dubbed Super Sunday because six medals were up for grabs.

Only one went to a Canadian.

The fans at the oval chanted “Kriss-tee-na, Kriss-tee-na.” And she had a marvellous skate but even Groves felt dissatisfied.

“I really wanted to win,” she said. “I think I’ll be feeling happy eventually.”

It was that kind of day.

It began sadly with the unexpected death from a heart attack of Joannie Rochette’s mother, Therese.

The figure skating champion was staggered when told her 55-year-old mama passed away at Vancouver General Hospital shortly after arriving to see her compete.

It was another tragedy at these Olympics on a day Canadians were plagued by bad luck.

Skier Chris Del Bosco was flying towards a bronze in men’s freestyle ski cross but tumbled badly on the final jump. His hopes were dashed. He came fourth.

The two-man bobsled also missed the podium by a sled blade. The Canada 2 team of Edmonton’s Pierre Lueders and Jesse Lumsden of Burlington, Ont., finished fifth.

In spite of the dearth of medals, the Canadian Olympic Committee continued to wear a forced smile.

“We’re going to have more medals won by Canadians than ever before in Olympic Winter Games following these particular Games,” boasted Michael Chambers, president.

“I truly believe that.”

But after two days of mediocre finishes, the mood within the Canadian camp was darkening.

American successes continued to mount and they taunted the Canadians about the swaggering Own The Podium program.

The Yankees said they were just renting it for the duration of the Games.

The coaching staff apparently surprised the hockey players with a “This is your time” speech from little Herbie.

Five-year-old Nashville-area kid Josh Sacco was a YouTube sensation with his imitation of American coach Herb Brooks from the movie Miracle.

Team USA cracked up.

Many were beginning to suggest that’s what the Canadians needed to do — lighten up. Perhaps they were under too much pressure.

Day 11

VANCOUVER — Canadian figure skating duo Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir flawlessly danced into history, capturing hearts and a gold medal on Day 11 of the Games.

A deafening ovation from the capacity audience at the Pacific Coliseum was overwhelming as they finished their lyrical and passionate final skate to Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5.

No North American skaters had ever won the ice-dancing event before.

Yet the sparkling triumph by Virtue, 20, of London, Ont., and Moir, 22, of Ilderton, Ont., could not dispel the medal-shortage gloom gathering in Canadian ranks as the country’s Olympic committee ran up the white flag.

The hand-wringing about Canada’s performance began earlier in the day.

Olympic Committee CEO Chris Rudge essentially delivered a mournful rendition of Woe, Canada, conceding the country had blown the podium.

“We are going to be short of our goal,” a downcast Rudge admitted.

“We’d be living in a fool’s paradise if we said we were going to catch the Americans and win. We’re not throwing in the towel. You never do that when you are in the middle of a fight, but it’s difficult.”

By Day 11 of the Games, there had been golden moments, incredible memories and multitudes far in excess of expectations enjoying the balmy weather and blizzards of cherry blossoms.

Nevertheless, the triumphs had been fewer than expected and the bitter defeats more often.

Rudge said Canadian organizers had not expected such strong showings by American, Chinese and South Korean athletes.

A few hours before the figure-skating victory, the cross-country skiing team suffered another heartbreak. For the second straight race, the skiers came within a gasp or two of capturing a medal.

Alex Harvey of St-Ferreol-les-Neiges, Que., and Devon Kershaw of Sudbury, Ont., finished fourth in the team sprint, only 4.8 seconds back of the bronze.

“We believed in our chances to finish on the podium,” Harvey said. “We were so close to our goal, we proved today that we can ski with the best in the world.”

Their finish was the best ever for the men’s team, which placed three skiers in the top 10 of the 30-km pursuit: another gutsy performance that fell just short of the podium, but an amazing achievement nevertheless.

The Canadian women cross-country skiers finished seventh in their sprint relay.

“We gave it everything we could,” Canmore, Alta.’s Sara Renner said afterwards.

And there were other bright spots for Canada: All three male skiers qualified for the aerials final at Cypress.

Canadian skip Kevin Martin of Edmonton, managed to get a bit of revenge for our staggering loss in men’s hockey by eliminating the American men’s curling team.

The women, too, continued their successful sweeping.

Calgary’s Cheryl Bernard and her squad cruised to an easy 6-2 win over the defending Olympic champions from Sweden.

Day 12

VANCOUVER — Skier Ashleigh McIvor and figure skater Joannie Rochette didn’t get the memo that these were no longer Canada’s Games.

McIvor, the 26-year-old from Whistler, B.C., part hippie and part supermodel, was crowned the first women’s ski cross champion with a historic win in the sport’s debut at the XXIst Winter Games.

“I was just standing in the start gate, thinking everything that’s happened in my life to this point has been leading to here,” she explained.

“And this is where I want to be right now.”

It was another brilliant performance and it set the stage for figure skater Rochette’s unbelievably poignant short program, which all but brought down the Pacific Coliseum.

“For my mama,” the 24-year-old from Ile Dupas, Que., sobbed in the arms of her coach, finishing the fearless performance two days after being staggered by news her mother had unexpectedly died.

She sat weeping as the ovation thundered and bouquets littered the ice.

Overcoming her grief, Rochette’s courageous focus wowed the judges and rallied the nation.

She and McIvor were character, determination and guts incarnate.

Fittingly, their success came on the same day the hockey gods smiled on Team Canada.

In the must-win game against Germany, the NHL stars came through with Roberto Luongo backstopping an easy 8-2 victory.

The day, though, belonged to McIvor and Rochette.

The ingenuous McIvor’s wide-eyed enthusiasm lit a fire under flagging Canadian spirits.

Her victory was instantly the stuff of folklore and legend.

In university, she earned an A for an undergraduate essay on why ski cross should be in the Olympic Games. When the sport was approved, she set her sights on winning the inaugural gold.

She virtually scripted her win.

She said it was her destiny — and she fulfilled it.

“I just felt I was made for this event,” McIvor bubbled. “This is my hometown. What more could I ask for? Winning the Olympics, this is just the icing on the cake. This is just the most amazing moment of my life.”

At the Whistler Sliding Centre, Calgary’s Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse of Summerside, P.E.I., contributed to the resurgent mood with a record-setting start in the women’s bobsled heats.

And the men’s and women’s curling teams continued to wage their successful campaigns.

But there were further disappointments.

The alpine ski team continued to be plagued with bad luck and to suffer from the yips.

In the giant slalom, Mont Tremblant, Que.’s Erik Guay finished 16th, Robbie Dixon of Whistler, 24th, Patrick Bicks of Orleans, Ont., 35th and Calgary’s Brad Spence 42nd.

Canada’s Olympic Committee predicted the elite skiers, who received a whopping $10 million in funding, would win two medals; Alpine Canada set the mark at three, including a gold.

After seven races, however, the team had none.

Guay said it’s easy for sports bureaucrats to predict medal totals; far more difficult for athletes to deliver.

“I know what they were trying to do,” the skier said.

“They were trying to get Canadians fired up. Setting big goals, ambitious goals for the team is a good thing. The downside is, it does add some pressure to the athletes that are competing.”

The truth is, some just can’t handle the pressure.

Others, like McIvor and Rochette, become diamonds.

Their performance was not so much the product of funding, but of grit and heart.

Both sent a single memo to Canadians: Believe!

They were feeling so comfortable late in the game against the Swedes that Bernard even brought in alternate Kristie Moore of Grande Prairie, Alta., who was noticeably pregnant.

Similarly, the Canadian women’s hockey team continued motoring on cruise control toward a medal.

They crushed Finland 5-0 to set up a gold medal game against Team USA.

Day 13

VANCOUVER — We finally did it. On Day 13, Canada owned the podium and our athletes enjoyed their best biggest medal haul at the Olympic Games.

Veteran distance speedskater Clara Hughes won bronze, the short-track skating relay team won a surprise silver after a disqualification and the women’s bobsled teams captured two medals, including the country’s seventh gold.

Won by bobsledders Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse, the gold medal meant Canada was tied for most first-place finishes with the United States and Germany.

At the same time, the men’s hockey team trashed the vaunted Russians 7-3 in a chippy, never-close quarter-final encounter.

The country’s medal total rose to 14 medals, Canadian women contributing 11, the men three.

There was little debate, however, that the biggest cheers of the day, which echoed across the nation, came as the hockey squad trounced Alexander Ovechkin and his teammates from Russia.

It put the Canadian team back on track for gold.

As for the inspirational Hughes, in her swan-song Olympic race, she provided another magical moment for the country by capturing a bronze medal in the 5,000 metres.

It was her sixth and tied teammate Cindy Klassen’s record for most medals.

“Thank you to this amazing crowd,” Hughes of Glen Sutton, Que., said to the fans who bellowed their adoration. “Once again you gave me wings. I had the rhythm that I had dreamt of today.”

Canada’s short-track relay team finished far behind China, but was awarded silver after the second-place Korean team was disqualified.

The judges concluded the Koreans interfered with the Chinese skaters during a pass late in the race. The surprise win added lustre to the celebration at the sliding centre.

Canada had never won a medal in women’s bobsled, which made its Olympic debut in 2002, so these wins were particularly meaningful.

Humphries, of Calgary, and Moyse of Summerside, P.E.I., were on competing teams in previous competitions. This day, they celebrated their successful partnership.

“We did it,” Humphries enthused. “I’m so excited right now. I wasn’t focused on the times. I just wanted to drive consistently. That was our goal for the first, second, third and fourth run.”

Moyse, her eyes wet with tears, said it was just “awesome” to finally join up with her former rival and win.

“It hasn’t quite set in yet,” she said. “When it does, I’ll be bawling.”

Earlier in the day, at the Richmond oval, Charles Hamelin of Ste-Julie, Que., Olivier Jean of Lachenaie, Que., and Francois-Louis Tremblay of Montreal, qualified for the individual 500-metre relay quarter-final.

And on the slopes, the world’s best female skier and U.S. poster girl, Lindsey Vonn, crashed in the giant slalom and broke a finger.

It made her participation in the upcoming slalom doubtful.

Regardless, the second leg of the super-G was postponed because of fog.

Austrian Elisabeth Goergl was in the lead after the first leg and the Canadian skiers were well back and out of medal contention.

Day 14

VANCOUVER — Hallelujah — hockey gold!

The women’s team delivered one of the two Olympic medals most cherished by Canadians on Day 14 of the Games sparking pandemonium at Canada Hockey Place.

Tears rolled freely down the players’ faces as they skated around basking in a seemingly endless ovation from an audience that included Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Canadian icons Wayne Gretzky and Michael J. Fox.

Across the nation, there were similar scenes of jubilation.

Later, the country rejoiced again as Joannie Rochette turned in another fearless performance, every Canadian heart was with the grief-stricken skater, whose 55-year-old mother died without seeing her daughter compete.

The 24-year-old delivered a brilliant routine set to Camille Saint-Saens’ Samson and Delilah.

The ovation rocked the Pacific Coliseum and she captured a bronze. South Korea’s Yu-Na Kim delivered a flawless performance and won the gold medal.

Queen Yu-Na set a new world record delivering one of the greatest free skates ever.

For Canadians, though, the women’s hockey final was the day’s crowning achievement.

Team Canada withstood a fierce third-period barrage by the Americans who threw everything they had at netminder Shannon Szabados.

The 23-year-old was impenetrable.

Two goals scored in the first period by Marie-Philip Poulin, the 18-year-old phenom from Beauceville, Que., was just enough for the win.

Still, there were disappointments for Canada.

At Cypress, Calgary skier Kyle Nissen was leading in the aerials after his first jump but fell to fifth when he failed to nail his second. He was shattered.

“It’s something that I should have been able to do,” Nissen said.

Canadians Steve Omischl, from North Bay, Ont., was eighth and Warren Shouldice, of Calgary, 10th.

“It’s a tough way to finish,” said Omischl.

Shouldice was “devastated and stunned.”

Canada’s athletes resurrected the country’s pride after the Olympic Committee all but declared the XXI Olympiad a failure. Canada would not win as many medals as hoped, but the quality of the winning performances had more than made up for the lack of quantity.

Canada had eight gold medals — tied with Germany and the U.S. for most first-place finishes.

The Canadian Olympic Committee admitted the Americans were too far ahead in the total medal count to catch and that the $117-million Own The Podium effort had failed.

But there was no shortage of Canadian champions at these games and more were waiting in the wings.

In curling both men’s and women’s teams were in the sweepstakes for gold.

Kevin Martin and his rink were readying to play the final against Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud.

The women too were guaranteed at least a silver.

Calgary skip Cheryl Bernard and her team faced a Swedish rink skippered by Anette Norberg, who won gold in 2006.

Team member Susan O’Connor said: “I think we’re going to have a tiny bit of a celebration, just to let ourselves be happy at what we accomplished.”

Canadians were doing the same — enjoying what had been accomplished: Eight gold medals.

And perhaps more importantly: One hockey gold down, one to go.

Day 15

VANCOUVER — The Canadian men’s speedskating team — Charles Hamelin, Francois-Louis Tremblay, Francois Hamelin and Olivier Jean — discovered the Midas touch and in classic better-late-than-never fashion turned Canada’s Games golden.

In two thrilling races, Hamelin and Tremblay won individual medals in the 500-metre sprint and the team captured gold in the 5,000-metre relay.

They were electrifying performances and ensured the 2010 Games would be a historic success for Canada.

After the final weekend’s hockey game was over, the country’s total gold haul stood at 14 medals — the most of any nation!

And with a total medal count of 26, Canada has surpassed the 24 medals garnered in Turin.

Charles Hamelin, of Levis, Que., was the world’s best speedskater on paper but until Day 15 of the Games, he had failed to prove it.

On that Friday, he silenced his critics with his triumphs.

In the first 500m race, marred at the end by a wipeout caused by American Apolo Anton Ohno, Hamelin was the last man legally standing.

Korean Sung Si-Bak, who had been leading at the moment of the collision, crossed the finish line on his back.

Tremblay, who was bowled over by Ohno, picked himself up off the ice and finished the last few metres as the judges began reviewing the spectacular crash.

By that time, Hamelin had jumped up on the boards and embraced his girlfriend, Marianne St-Gelais.

She won a silver on her birthday 10 days earlier.

St-Gelais screamed encouragement from the stands, jumping up and down in excitement. When Hamelin won, she raced to rinkside, leaped over a railing and threw her arms around him.

They kissed passionately as the crowd cheered enthusiastically.

In the 5,000m relay, the men skated strongly and held off a late challenge from the Koreans to a similar ovation.

In curling at the Vancouver Olympic Centre, however, the crowd’s applause was muted by the feeling one got away.

Calgary’s Cheryl Bernard missed two key shots in the 10th and extra ends to lose 7-6 and miss the gold medal.

The defending champion Swedish rink of Anette Norberg stole a point in the final end and with it victory.

Bernard had beaten the Swedes earlier in the week, and held a 6-4 lead going into the 10th. It should have been enough to win.

But Bernard failed to clear Norberg’s penultimate stone from the house and the Swede scored a pair to force another end.

Again, after several rocks, Bernard looked to be in control but went awry trying to score a double on her final throw.

The Swedish team whooped as the Canadians stood crestfallen and the audience sat stunned.

It was not the only disappointment.

Canada’s female speedskaters were shut out of the 1,000-metre medal final.

Fortunately, in spite of a nail-biting final period, the marquee men’s hockey team held on to defeat the Slovaks 3-2.

The U.S.A.-Finland playoff, by comparison, was an anticlimactic rout.

The Americans ran roughshod over the Finns 6-1, scoring a half-dozen goals in the first period and then cruising through the next two barely breaking a sweat.

“I think that was one of the best games of the tournament because I got to watch most of it,” said American goalie Ryan Miller, who was idle for most of it.

He would need the rest for the battle for gold against the Canadians.

Day 16

VANCOUVER — When thousands of fans crammed into the Vancouver Olympic Centre spontaneously rose in a roaring rendition of O Canada, you knew Edmonton skip Kevin Martin was on the verge of leading his curling team to Olympic gold.

After more than two decades of campaigning on ice sheets around the world — from the dark days when curling wasn’t even a Winter Games sport — Martin triumphed.

He, along with Edmonton teammates Marc Kennedy, Ben Hebert and John Morris, defeated Thomas Ulsrud’s Norwegian rink, 6-3.

It was a sweet moment for Martin who finished fourth at the 1992 Albertville Games, when the sport was inaugurated as an Olympic event.

“Finally!” he rejoiced. “It took a long time, a lot of years. (But) the hard work was worth it.”

It was a continuation of Canada’s amazing final weekend at the Games.

The men’s pursuit speedskating team took a second gold.

Denny Morrison, a 24-year-old from Fort. St. John, B.C., led the speedskating pursuit team, which included Regina’s Lucas Makowsky and Montreal’s Mathieu Giroux, after faltering earlier in the Games.

“It was cool to be able to come together after a rough week with no medals for any of the men,” Morrison said. “To come away with gold as a team, there’s no better way to finish off the Olympics for us.”

Jasey Jay Anderson, the veteran snowboarder who returned for these Olympics to win a medal for exactly the same reasons as Martin, felt the same way.

He knifed his way through ugly conditions to win gold in the parallel giant slalom to a cheering crowd that refused to let Mother Nature drive them from their seats.

Anderson, a 24-year-old from Mont-Tremblant, Que., and a four-time World Cup champ, had competed in every Olympics since the snowboarding event was added at the 1998 Nagano Games.

But he had failed to finish higher than fifth.

“We can’t base out life, our career, on one medal,” he said, a grin pasted on his face that belied his winner’s modesty. “It wouldn’t have been the end of the wold if it eluded me again. I was getting used to it.”

Sadly, the weather preyed on the jinxed alpine team.

Many, many skiers, including Calgary’s Brad Spence, did not finish the prestigious slalom race because of missed gates, wipeouts or veering off course in the intermittent fog and shoddy conditions.

It was a miserable day on the slopes.

Julien Cousineau of Lachute, Que., had a tremendous second run, but it wasn’t enough.

Still perhaps the saddest news of the day was that on the eve of the cross-country ski marathon, blind skier Brian McKeever was cut from the squad.

Only four skiers per country were allowed and the others on the team were demonstrably faster than the Calgarian.

And the Olympics are about stronger, higher, faster.

Day 17

VANCOUVER — With the cheers of a gold medal hockey victory echoing across Canada, the XXI Winter Olympics ended in a celebration of national pride.

A country went to bed feeling exultant.

Sidney Crosby staved off humiliation in overtime and made it official — these were Canada’s Golden Games. It was a fitting, if harrowing, end to the 17 days of competition — the Winter Games that redefined a nation.

This is a country reborn, a people that have forged a new identity.

If there were doubts at the beginning, they were not to be found by the end.

Where were those rent-the-podium Yankee taunts when Crosby fired home the winning goal?

The country once defined as so civil even when its buses arrived apologizing — “sorry, full” — stood up and said just because we’re polite doesn’t mean we’re pushovers.

Canadians won the most golds — 14, and the most ever by any country in history.

Canada was the champion of these Olympics, as both host and as a competitor.

These were the most watched, most talked about, the best attended and the most participated Winter Olympics in history.

Television ratings were through the roof and Internet traffic was off the scale.

“The People’s Games,” many said.

By any measure of popularity and interest, a humungous success. Far beyond expectations.

Crowds, throngs, multitudes surged through Vancouver spontaneously breaking into heartfelt, if off-key, versions of O Canada celebrating a new-found sense of national pride.

It was a glorious end to 17 days of make-believe.

The athletes came through in the end reaping an unprecedented harvest of medals — more even than the 24 garnered at the 2006 Turin Games.

The final weekend was full of sparkling victories that long will be cherished.

All of the memories were gilded — Devon Kershaw, the 27-year-old from Sudbury, Ont., skiing his heart out and earning fifth place — only heartbeats behind after a 50-kilometre marathon. Who did not cry with him?

Or with Joannie Rochette?

Together with Slovenia cross-country skier Petra Majdic, who fell breaking five ribs but managed to win a bronze medal, she was awarded the Terry Fox Award for her courage.

Their example was what the Olympics are about: Heart, hearts of gold.

There were many new inductees to Canada’s pantheon of heroes, and their triumphs will live forever in our collective memory.

Ashleigh McIvor — another new hero — said she came to these games to fulfil her destiny. She did with gold.

So did Canada.

A nation was asked to believe. It did. And its faith was rewarded: 14 gold medals, seven silver and five bronze.

That’s right. Canada won 14 gold. More than any other country. Ever.

As the Prime Minister said, a defining moment.

But enough said. After all, we are still Canadian.