We all know that going into these Olympics, Canada had never won a gold medal on Canadian soil. That painful, little fact had been drilled into our heads leading up to the Vancouver Games.
There had been repeated reminders that in Calgary we wound up with two silver and three bronze.
Of course, we’ve already gotten past that thanks to the victory by Alexandre Bilodeau in men’s freestyle skiing moguls.
While the glory is going to the young man from Rosemere, Que., the real thanks should be going to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
At the 1988 Olympics, there were a total of 46 events, with a gold medal handed out in each.
This year, there are a total of 86 events, almost double the Calgary total.
If there were the same official medal events in these Olympics as there had been in Calgary, we would not have been celebrating Bilodeau’s gold.
Since 1988, short track speedskating, curling, women’s hockey, snowboarding, women’s bobsled, skeleton and freestyle skiing have all been added to the Winter Olympic agenda, along with additional events in cross-country skiing and long track speedskating.
To show how much we’ve benefited from these added sports let’s look at our medal count at the 2006 Olympics in Turin, which was Canada’s highest ever at 24.
If you remove all of the events that have been added since Calgary, Canada would have won two gold — Cindy Klassen and Clara Hughes both in long track speedskating — instead of seven.
Our silver total would have plummeted from 10 to three — Pierre Lueders and Lascelles Brown in the two-man bobsled and Klassen and Kristina Groves, both in long track.
The bronze total of seven would also have slipped to three — Jeff Buttle in men’s figure skating and two bronze medals for Klassen. Klassen’s Olympic-leading total of five medals would also have dropped to four without the team pursuit.
This would have given us just eight medals.
On the flip side, Calgary could have been so much better for Canada — and we wouldn’t be hearing ad nauseum about the no-gold-at-home streak — if some of these newer sports had been included as official sports in 1988.
During the Calgary Games, three sports that are now official sports were demonstration events — specifically curling, short track and freestyle skiing.
If the results from those demonstration events that are now part of the Olympics (this doesn’t count freestyle ballet and the men’s and women’s individual short track 3,000 metres, which are not part of the Olympics now) were counted in Canada’s medal total, we would have walked away with three gold, seven silver and six bronze, for a total of 16 medals.
That would have leapfrogged Canada over eight countries, including the U.S. and Germany, to finish fourth just behind Switzerland, whose total would climb to 17 thanks to a freestyle bronze. The USSR at 28 and East Germany at 25 would have remained steady and well out of reach.
So, let’s not worry too much about Calgary and instead thank the IOC.
The influx of new sports over the last few Olympics has not made for great TV but has been beneficial to our medal totals.
Jason Small can be reached at 691-1255.
