Canada's Olympic History

Canada at the Winter Olympics

When the 1964 Canadian Bobsled Team of Vic and John Emery, Peter Kirby and Doug Anakin won gold at the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, they came from a country with no bobsled training facilities, no organizations and no tracks. The Canada 1 emblazoned on the hull of the bobsled spoke of how it and the four men who rocketed down a twisting tunnel of ice were one of a kind.

At the 1984 Games, the 26-year old Gaetan Boucher carried the Canadian flag in Sarajevo for the opening of the 14th Winter Olympiad. When the Sarajevo Games closed, Canada's medal total stood at four. Boucher won three of them – two gold and a bronze.

When Calgary hosted Canada's first Winter Games in 1988, the Olympic flame began its 88-day journey across Canada from St. John's historic Signal Hill. By the time the flame finally reached Calgary in February it had traveled more than 15,000 kilometres in cars, on snowmobile, via train, plane, on foot, and even with the aid of a dogsled. The flame ignited a magical 16 days of competition and a truly Canadian celebration.

Born in Ancienne Lorette, Québec, on 22 December 1969, Myriam Bédard became part of history in the 1992 Winter Games in Albertville, France. The 16th Winter Games marked the first time in the history of the Olympics that the biathlon was open to women, and when Bédard won a bronze medal in the 15-kilometre race, she became the first North American athlete ever to win an Olympic medal in a biathlon event. Four years later in Lillehammer, Norway, Bédard won gold in both the 7.5- and 15-kilometre event, becoming the first Canadian woman ever to win two Olympic gold medals, as well as the first North American athlete ever to win gold in an Olympic biathlon event.

For Canadian athletes, Salt Lake 2002 was the most successful Winter Games in Olympic history. Canada placed a record 4th in the medal standings behind Germany, the United States and Norway with a total of 17 medals. Canadian athletes won 6 gold, 3 silver, and 8 bronze medals. The crowning achievement for Canada was the gold medal victory for both the women's and men's hockey teams. Pairs figure skaters Jamie Salé and David Pelletier shared double gold medals with Russian skaters Bereznaya and Sikharulidze after a controversial judging scandal. Aerialists Veronica Brenner and Deidra Dionne became the first Canadian women to win Olympic medals in freestyle skiing, winning silver and bronze respectively. Canadian speed skaters were the most significant contributors to the total medal count, winning a total of eight medals. Speed skater Marc Gagnon became the most decorated Canadian Winter Olympian of all time when he won gold in the 500m, gold in the 5000m relay with teammates Jonathan Guilmette, Francois-Louis Tremblay and Mathieu Turcotte, and bronze in the 1500m. Gagnon's total of five Olympic medals from 1994 to 2002 exceeds Gaetan Boucher's record of four medals. Speed skater Clara Hughes won the honour of being the first Canadian athlete to win a medal at both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. In 1996 at Atlanta, Hughes won two bronze medals for cycling.