Canada predicted to shine at Olympics
Company pegs us for 33 medals in South Korea
An international CALGARY data analytics company predicts Canada will win a whopping 33 medals, including men’s hockey gold, at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
In a virtual medal table released Wednesday, Gracenote projects the Canadian team will rank third in total medals behind Germany (40) and Norway (37) and ahead of the U.S. (29).
Gracenote delivers music, video and sports metadata to entertainment services and companies.
The company said in a release Wednesday it based its model on individual and team results from previous World Cup, world championships and Olympics.
The 2018 Olympics open Feb. 9 and close Feb. 25.
The 33 medals forecast for the Canadian team (seven gold, 12 silver and 14 bronze) would wallop the country’s previous best of 26 claimed by the host team at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and Whistler, although the breakdown there was 14 gold, seven silver and five bronze.
Canada’s medal haul from 2014 will also be 26 (10, 10 and 6) when the luge relay team is officially upgraded from fourth to bronze due to a doping violation by Russia.
Gracenote thinks Canada will win men’s hockey gold without its top NHL players, but predicts silver for the women’s hockey team.
The Canadian Olympic Committee has yet to state what the Canadian team’s medal target is for Pyeongchang.
Russia is the wild card in the prediction game as 42 athletes banned from Pyeongchang because of doping violations have appealed their cases to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Canada stands to gain medals in some sports in the absence of some Russians, but which athletes will be allowed to compete under the “neutral” banner of Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) is still to be determined.
“We have removed all 19 of the projected OAR medallists from this version of the virtual medal table,” Gracenote said in the statement. “The athletes who are allowed to compete will be included in our final virtual medal table release just before the Games begin.”
Gracenote predicted gold for bobsledder Kaillie Humphries, the Kevin Koe and Rachel Homan curling teams, figure skater Kaetlyn Osmond, moguls skier Mikael Kingsbury, snowboarder Max Parrot and the men’s hockey team.