Dan Barnes breaks down Canada’s best medal hopes

In Pyeongchang, Canada looks ready to win more medals than ever before at a Winter Olympics.

We crunched the numbers and came up with 32 plausible podium finishes for Canadians at the Winter Olympics in Korea. That would obliterate the previous standard of 26 from Vancouver.

We think Canadian short track speed skaters will lead the way with seven medals. Count on five from long track speed skating, four each from freestyle skiing and snowboard, three apiece from figure skating and curling, two each from bobsled and hockey, and singles from crosscountry skiing and skeleton.

Thirty-two! We don’t think it will be enough to beat Germany or Norway at 36 apiece, but Canada should slide past the U.S. at 30. And yes, all four of those nations will benefit from the fact that less than 170 Olympic Athletes from Russia are due to participate, pending more legal action, and could win as few as 15 medals.

To supplement the inherent knowledge of all things snow and ice that accompanies a Canadian passport, we watched World Cups and Grand Prixs in person and on video, tracked podiums for five months and consulted high performance directors and coaches.

And we know for sure that skiathlon and biathlon are combinations of Nordic activities, but are not Nordic combined. We know that death, taxes and Mikael Kingsbury in the moguls are sure things.

Here then is our event-by-event look at who will or (probably) might (possibly) win every one of the 306 medals presented in the 15 winter Olympic sports in Korea. All times are Canadian, Mountain.