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Canada's Mike Robertson (left) and American gold medallist Seth Walcott take flight over the final jump in Monday's snowboard cross final at Cypress. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)
February 16, 2010
Give us more Mike Robertsons, please
Posted by Rob Klovance
If Canada is serious about owning the podium at the 2010 Winter Games, for every Charles Hamelin and Manuel Osborne-Paradis, we're going to need a Mike Robertson.
Not all medal favourites deliver, something underlined Monday as Osborne-Paradis in the men's downhill and Hamelin in the 500-metre short track skating event came up well short of the podium. Those results have helped put us a bit behind in our bid to top the medal standings for the first time.
Getting us one back Monday was Robertson, who just missed out on gold, losing out to Seth Westcott of the United States in a fantastic snowboard cross final. And with a little luck, we could have had another one earlier in the day, as Erik Guay finished 24 hundredths of a second out of the medals with a fifth-place in a downhill that saw favourite Osborne-Paradis finish 19th.
We're going to need more Canadian darkhorses to deliver medal surprises, much in the same way that Chandra Crawford shocked the cross-country ski world by winning sprint gold at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino.
Who's our next gold medal winner?
It's at this point that we hope gold medal moguls winner Alexandre Bilodeau is right in his post-victory declaration Sunday.
"It's great starting for Canada and I'll be cheering for all the Canadians to win gold in the next couple of days," said Bilodeau, who may have surprised a few experts – Sports illustrated had him finishing out of the medals – with his inspiring dash down the moguls run at Cypress. "There will be more to come, it's just starting for Canada."
As of this post, it hasn't happened yet. Our next great gold medal hope is Maelle Ricker in today's women's snowboard cross, but don't rule out fellow Canadian Dominique Maltais. Two medals in that event are a very real possibility.
Most predict that Canada will need 27 medals or more to top the medal standings, and the medals race is expected to be tight with the likes of Germany and the U.S., which is off to such a great start.
Then again, we may all just want to relax and stop worrying about our medal count. Rejoice when we win, while cheering on the champions and underdogs of all nations.
My favourite Olympic "moment" or series of moments, was not delivered by a Canadian. It was watching Austrian skier Hermann Maier walk away from an epic crash during downhill training at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, then win gold in the giant slalom and super-G a week later.
If you're looking for a fun place to watch your favourite events and can't get in to the big-screen sites like LiveCity Downtown, drop by the Power Smart Theatre in the Power Smart Village at Homer and Dunsmuir in downtown Vancouver.
Editor's note: A few hours after this piece was posted, none other than Maelle Ricker came through with a gold medal in the women's snowboard cross. Yeee-ha!
Rob Klovance is managing editor of bchydro.com and a frequent contributor to Unplug This Blog!
