Canada and the Winter Olympic Games: 5 Things You Didn’t Know

5 Things You Didn’t Know About Canada and the Winter Olympic Games

The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games are well underway and Canada is doing great! With only a few days left of events, our nation currently places 5th for number of gold medals received (7) with 20 medals in total (9 silver, 4 bronze).

While it is easy to look up the medal count on Google or any other internet search engine for that matter, here are a few facts that aren’t as easily discovered about Canada in past Winter Olympic Games.

First in Canada

February 13th, 1988 - The opening ceremonies for the 1988 Winter

Olympics took place in Calgary, AB, the first Winter Olympic Games held in Canada. Vancouver, B.C., is the only other Canadian city to have held the Winter Olympics (2010).

The facilities used in the 1988 Winter Olympics, such as Canada Olympic Park, have undergone many updates and are still in use by Canada's athletes and the public till this day.

Montreal, Quebec held the Summer Olympic Games in 1976.

At Least One

Did you know? Canada has won at least one medal at every Winter Olympics we have competed in.

From 1924 to 2010, in 21 Winter Olympic Games, Canada won 52 gold, 50 silver and 48 bronze medals.

Consistent Competitor

Did you know? Canada has competed in every Winter Olympics since the first one that was held in 1924?

On average, Canada has ranked very close to 8th overall for gold medal

count out of all 21 Winter Olympic Games at 8.14.

Our First Gold

Did you know? Canada won its very first gold medal at the 1924 Winter Olympic

Games in Men's Ice Hockey? We started out strong to say the least by beating Switzerland 33 – 0, Czechoslovakia 30 – 0, Sweden 22 – 0 and Great Britain 19 – 2.

Canada faced more of a challenge in the finals when they played the USA, but still won 6 to 1.

Number One

Did you know? Canada won the most gold medals at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games with a total of 14? In addition, Canada also won 7 silver and 5 bronze medals for a total of 26.

To put things in perspective, Germany came second in the gold medal count with 10 and the USA in third with 9.

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