The Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang ended on February 25. Last issue, Hasan wrote an article covering the events up until the 22nd of February. Now, this recap will talk about the last three days of the Olympics, and the events leading up to the Paralympic games.
Team Canada added more medals to its collection: its final medal count for the Olympics is 11 gold, 8 silver, and 10 bronze, leaving Canada in third place based on a total medal count of 29 medals, and in second place for the highest number of gold medals. This puts us behind Germany and Norway, with total medal counts of 31 and 39 medals respectively. Both Germany and Norway tied for first place in the number of gold medals, each country having 14 gold in their medal count. This year’s Olympics was one of Canada’s best performance in the Olympics, as it achieved a new record in the amount of medals won at the Winter Olympic games.
Speaking of Canada’s medal count, 5 additional medals have been added to the medal count since the previous issue. On February 23, Kelsey Serwa and Brittany Phelan finished first and second respectively in the women’s ski cross finals, maintaining Canada’s winning streak on ski-cross since the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. On the same day, Kaetlyn Osmond won bronze in the women’s singles event in figure skating. She scored an overall of 231.02 points, which was better than her previous score in the free skate. On the next day, the first ever Olympic gold medalist for the snowboard big air was Sebastien Toutant, a Canadian. The men’s hockey team from Canada finished in third place after winning against the Czech Republic in the bronze medal game with a score of 6 – 4. Even though Canada lost to Germany in the semi-finals, they did beat the team that defeated them during the preliminary round. The final medal earned by Team Canada was one of the four medals won in men’s hockey for the past five Olympic games.
However, not all of Canada’s moments in the Olympics were the greatest. On February 24, a Canadian ski-cross athlete Dave Duncan was arrested for stealing a car and going on a joyride while drunk. The other two people with him at the time of his arrest was his wife Maja and the Canadian technical coach William Raine. Both were arrested along with Duncan for their involvement. The trio found an idling Hummer and drove off before getting arrested. According to the local law enforcement, the driver of the vehicle was found to have blood alcohol level of 0.162, which was over the limit of 0.05. In addition, they stated that one of the people in the car passed out when arrested. Duncan has since apologized for his actions and his “behaviour that demonstrated poor judgment.”
Another event that has stirred up some controversy was the medal ceremony for men’s hockey, where the Olympic Athlete’s from Russia’s hockey team sang their banned Russian anthem. The Olympic Athletes from Russia took gold after defeating Germany with a score of 4 – 3 in overtime. Due to Russia being banned from attending the Olympics in relation to doping scandals, the Olympic Athletes from Russia competed neutrally and under the Olympic flag. This also means that playing their own national anthem was a violation of their neutrality. However, since this was the first time a team from Russia won the gold medal in men’s hockey since 1992, this was a big moment for the Athletes from Russia. They had all agreed to sing the Russian anthem if they were to win the match. They sang over the default Olympic anthem during the raising of the Olympic flag.
The Olympics are over, but the Paralympics have just begun. Brian McKeever, a 13-time Paralympic medalist and a qualifier for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, was the flag bearer for Team Canada for the opening ceremonies of the Paralympic games. This will be his fifth Paralympic game that he will be attending, yet his first time ever participating in an opening ceremony for the games. In addition, 55 athletes from Canada will compete during the nine days of the Paralympic Winter Games.
Overall, Team Canada performed very well during the Olympic games in Pyeongchang. With the Olympics over, and the Paralympics just starting up, we wish them all the best.
Leave a Reply