The greatest sporting event on earth, where 2,925 athletes from 92 nations compete in 102 events, got underway on Feb. 9 in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Canada is looking to top their stellar performance at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics where we snatched 10 golds, 10 silvers, and five bronzes, placing third overall. This year, with the Russians caught up in a state-sponsored doping scandal, which left a number of athletes ineligible, the Canadians are in a prime spot to take the podium.
Canada is sending 225 athletes to compete in 14 of the 15 sports featured in Pyeongchang. What follows are just a few standouts from a healthy showing by the Great White North, who will be led by figure skating sensations, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.
Men’s Ice Hockey
The men’s tournament took a heavy hit with National Hockey League (NHL) players not participating this year. To fill the gap, Hockey Canada has turned to a mix of retired veterans such as Derek Roy and Chris Kelly and overseas talent from the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) and Swedish Hockey League (SHL). To many, these players don’t seem to stack up to their NHL counterparts, but they are still very capable players with many involved in taking home the Spengler Cup earlier this year.
Team Canada general manager Sean Burke said in an interview that, “when we go to these Olympics, this team will make Canada proud. There’ll be a gold-medal effort.”
Canadian to watch: Brandon Kozun
The ex-Maple Leaf is a small and dynamic player who is a fantastic option on international ice. This year, he has been playing professional hockey for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in the KHL where he has 13 goals and 19 assists in 52 games. This tally is still sizable for the KHL, where a point a game is incredibly difficult (Alex Ovechkin had 13 goals and assists in 37 games the year he was drafted). Kozun isn’t the biggest of boys, but what he doesn’t have in size, he makes up for in playmaking and offensive potential. Look for him on top of Canada’s point charts.
Canada gets their tournament underway on Feb. 15 when they take on Switzerland. Their group also includes Korea and the Czech Republic.
Women’s Ice Hockey
The Canadian women’s national team is set to play their first set of Olympic games without former captain Hayley Wickenheiser since the introduction of women’s hockey in 1998. That being said, two massive names are returning to Canada: Marie-Philip Poulin and Natalie Spooner.
Women’s hockey has been a consistent medal winner for Canada, and the team has won a medal every year since the sport’s introduction in 1998. The Canadians once again are the favorites to take home the gold for the fifth time in a row.
Canadian to Watch: Marie-Philip Poulin
Poulin will look to fill Wickenheiser’s place, and there is no more fitting person than her to take on the role of team captain. Poulin is dubbed by her teammates as “Captain Clutch,” and for good reason too. She has never played in an Olympic game where she has not scored the winning goal in the gold medal game. Absolutely astonishing!
In Vancouver, an 18-year-old Poulin netted two goals, but the one that remains in every Canadian’s memory happened four years later. Canada was trailing 2-0 to the US with only two minutes left in regulation; by the end of the night, the Canadians would erase that deficit and take home gold once again.
During that game, Poulin would score two of the biggest goals of her career. That night, she scored with one minute left in regulation to send it to overtime. Eight minutes later, she would put Canada up for good. That game was one of those sports moments that you remember where you were for the rest of your life. I was in my high school’s library. Needless to say, she has earned her moniker.
Bobsled
The Canadian bobsled team is looking primed to take the top step of the podium in Pyeongchang. The partnership of Justin Kripps and Alexander Kopacz struck gold at the Bobsleigh World Cup in the build-up to the Olympics.
This event is traditionally dominated by the Germans, Swiss, and Americans who between them, hold 94 of the 140 medals awarded since the sport was introduced in 1924. The Canadians have come to dominate the sport in the past few Olympics, picking up their first gold in the two-man sport at the 1998 Games in Japan. The four-man bobsled picked up a bronze in Vancouver in 2010, but this time around, the focus is on the two-man event, thanks to the aforementioned duo of Kripps and Kopacz.
Unlike the men who are aiming to snatch the medal, the women are looking to defend it. For Kaillie Humphries, this pressure is not new, as she is a back-to-back gold medalist in this event. Winning has become second nature to the women’s side since the sport’s introduction in Salt Lake City.
In Vancouver, the Canucks picked up both gold and silver and followed that up by once again claiming the top step of the podium. Humphries will have to stay sharp, as the Americans will be hot on her heels to seize the medal.
Canadians to Watch: Justin Kripps and Kaillie Humphries
Kripps enters his third Olympic Games hungry to pick up some silverware to bring back home, and it is looking like he could possibly get it. He currently sits at the top of the bobsledding world, ranked by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation as the top sledder in the sport. All of his races until now have seen him place no lower than fourth. The competition gets underway on Feb. 18.
For Humphries, winning is second nature. She is Canada’s most successful bobsledder with two Olympic golds and four World Cup titles—that includes the one she won last month (That competition was a pretty good day for Canadians, with two golds, and a fourth place finish overall). The Calgarian is looking primed to take the top step of the podium as the women get underway on Feb. 17.
Curling
The Canadians are one of the most dominant teams in the history of Olympic curling. For the women, they have won a medal in every Olympics since the introduction of the sport at Nagano in 1998 (two gold, one silver, and two bronze). For the men, the story is the exact same (three gold and two silver).
Canadians to Watch: Kevin Koe and Rachel Homan
Koe will lead his team at Pyeongchang after a nail-biter against the Manitoba-based team of Mike McEwan, where they won 7-6. This will be Koe’s first Olympics, but the Alberta-born curler is one of the greatest talents that this country has. In the Olympic qualification rounds, he went 7-1, and has led Canada in being ranked the top curling nation in the world. The men get underway on Feb. 14 against Italy.
Homan is entering the tournament after a perfect qualifying campaign, going 13-0. This will also be her first Olympics after finishing third in the build-up to Sochi. The 26-year-old athlete has the potential to be one of the brightest stars in Canadian curling, being the youngest skipper to ever win three national titles. The Ottawa-native gets her tournament underway on Feb. 15 against Korea.
Figure Skating
The Canadians sent the most skaters of any other country to the Olympics, with a total of 17 skaters: two men, three women, three pairs, and three ice dance couples. This group is a perfect blend of experience and youth: at the Sochi Olympics in 2014, Gabrielle Daleman made her Olympic debut at age 16. Now 20 years old, she is set to better her 17th place from four years ago, having finished with a bronze in Olympic pre-tournaments.
The Canadians have already won a gold medal in the team event during the first days of competition, and will look to aim more to their collection as the individual events get underway.
Canadians to Watch: Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir
The two-time Olympic medalists are now the face of the Canadian Olympic team at Pyeongchang, having had the honour of being the flag bearers at the opening ceremony.
The pair is aiming to reclaim the gold medal they won on home soil at the Vancouver games. This will likely be their last Olympic Games, and they are both looking for the perfect ending to their careers.
