Canada still confident but medals target slips away (News Feature)

By Barry Whelan Feb 22, 2010, 19:46 GMT

Vancouver - Canada remains confident of its best result in winter Games history despite a disappointing weekend culminating in a first defeat in 50 years by the United States in men's ice-hockey.

But Canada's Olympic Committee COC chief executive Chris Rudge acknowledged Monday it will be unrealistic now to finish the Games top of the medal standings after setbacks began to pile up for the host nation.

Rudge said it was unlikely the US team, at present top of the standing with 24 medals, could be overhauled, and said Canada had expected more than just one medal over the weekend.

'Was this Canada's lost weekend?' a National Post headline said Monday after Canada failed to win a gold on Saturday and Sunday and suffered a number of deflating results.

Both the Globe and Mail with 'Woe Canada' and the Vancouver Sun with 'O No Canada' had headlines playing on the O Canada national anthem. 'Its getting grimmer by the moment for Canadian team,' said a headline in the Globe and Mail.

Canadians had won nine medals including four gold going into Monday's competition and were lying fourth in the medal standings. At the same point in Turin 2006 they had 14 medals.

On the back of its five-year 110-million-dollar Own The Podium programme, officials had been predicting up to 34 medals at the Vancouver Games, a target that is receding fast.

COC president Mike Chambers says the first week of the Games belonged to the United States, who have seven gold medals among its tally of 24, but the second week could be Canada's.

It can perhaps only get better for Canada after 'Super Sunday' with six medal events and the eagerly awaited Canada-USA hockey game turned into a super damp squib for homes fans.

Only one silver medal came the Canadians way thanks to Kristina Groves in speed skating, but the men's hockey team failed to deliver a much-needed boost in the so-called grudge match against the United States and now has a rocky road on the way to the hoped-for gold.

The 5-3 defeat leaves Canada now needing to beat Germany on Tuesday just to qualify for the quarter-finals - with highly-fancied Russia the likely opponents.

Canadian medals are still expected to come in curling, hockey, snowboarding, freestyle skiing and speed skating.

'This week will be ours, We're still confident that our teams will win more medals than they have at any other Games where Canada has competed,' he said.

'You'll see that the goal we set out for ourselves is achievable. We're still on target to have our best Games ever.'

Canada's Own The Podium has come in for criticism for being too aggressive and somehow 'unCanadian' while also riling opponents. It is now even being seen as a cause of the problem.

'Perhaps Own The Podium has put undo pressure on Canadian athletes. If the Canadian team continues to struggle, that topic will be debated fiercely,' a National Post commentator wrote.

Speed skater Denny Morrison appeared to blame the programme for his poor finish on Saturday, saying it meant he could no longer train with US rival Shani Davis who won silver in the event.

Morrison then Sunday retracted his statement, saying his comments had been misconstrued. But other Canadian athletes have felt the need to apologize for their failures to deliver on the money invested in them.

Skeleton favourite Mellisa Hollingsworth was in tears saying she felt she had let the country down after finishing fifth in her event on Friday. She was still distraught in a television interview Sunday.

And there has been much soul searching from the alpine ski team which has not fulfilled the country's expectations.

The many apologies, said the Globe and Mail, are 'in many ways an unintended by-product of the Own The Podium and its stated pursuit.'