Canada demands gold rush at Vancouver Games (News Feature)

By Barry Whelan Feb 10, 2010, 1:08 GMT

Vancouver - The question is not whether Canada will win a gold medal but when.

Canada hosted the Montreal 1976 summer Games and the 1988 Calgary winter Games without winning a single event.

That will change in Vancouver when the Games begin on Friday.

'I'll make you two promises,' said Sports Minister Gary Lunn.

'We're going to win gold - we're going to win gold at home for the first time. Our Canadian team will do better than they ever have before.'

The host nation's confidence comes on the back of its 117-million- Canadian-dollar (110 million US dollars) Own the Podium programme for training and equipment to get Canada to the top of the medals table.

'Own the Podium has been the most aggressive sport technical initiative in Canadian history,' Lunn said.

Five years have been spent preparing Canada's efforts to get the nation - if possible - to the top of the medals table.

'The number of gold medals could be quite significant and we hope that it is,' said Chris Rudge, chief executive of the Canadian Olympic Committee.

'Not winning a gold medal is hypothetical to an extreme.'

Canada finished fifth in the medals table in Turin four years ago with a tally of 7 gold, 10 silver and 7 bronze. Germany (11 golds), USA (9), Austria (9), and Russia (8) were ahead of them.

At Salt Lake City in 2002, the Canadians also had 7 gold medals of a total of 17 when they were behind Norway (13), Germany (12) and USA (10).

With home advantage, Canadian athletes will hoping to be competitive in a range of disciplines. Rudge forecasts the tally of medals growing to between 27 and 29.

'We've accomplished in Canada, in a period of five or six years, what other countries like Australia have taken 20 years to,' he said.

'The other athletes (from other countries), they're now looking at ours and saying, 'what have they got?''

But who is going to break Canada's Olympic duck by winning a first home gold?

Honours could come on the first medal-event day on Saturday when there are decisions in women's biathlon, ski jumping, alpine skiing, and freestyle skiing.

The men's downhill in Whistler may be worth a wager. Reigning world champion John Kucera is out injured but Manuel Osborne-Paradis, who grew up in Whistler, is a major contender.

'The difference between Turin in 2006 and now is that we have four guys here that could all win gold,' said Osborne-Paradis in reference to teammates Erik Guay, Jan Hudec and Robbie Dixon.

However the Swiss pair Didier Cuche and Carlo Janka, currently first and second in the World Cup downhill standings, are among many in a strong field who might have other ideas.

A better bet could come in the freestyle at Cypress Mountains where Canadian hopes will be with Jennifer Heil, who in 2006 became the first Canadian woman to win an Olympic medal in moguls.

'In terms of winning Canada's first gold medal - I don't see any different value in who wins a medal, whether it's Day 1 or Day 7. I know how hard it is and how much effort goes into winning any Olympic medal,' Heil said at training this week.

Organizing committee VANOC chief executive John Furlong, for one, cannot wait for Canada's first home gold.

'We'd really like to get that monkey off our back,' he said.

'I'd like to be in his (her) brain for 15 seconds to understand how it feels to be the first Canadian to win that gold medal,' he said of the prospect.

The performance of Canadian athletes will go a long way to defining the success of the Games - at least for the hosts.

And nowhere are expectations greater than in ice-hockey, the national sport where gold medals are expected for both men and women.

'I can't think of any group of athletes under more pressure,' said VANOC deputy chief executive Dave Cobb of the men's team.

Expect Canada to virtually grind to a halt if the team reaches the final on the last day of the Games on Sunday February 28.

'There isn't a Canadian out there who doesn't have their fingers crossed that Canada will win the hockey gold medal on the last day of the Games,' Furlong said.

'If we are in the final, there will be nobody in the country not watching TV. I don't know who will be running the country.'