Canada just one gold shy of Vancouver

The danger in holding your Olympic wrap- up news conference before the final day’s events is that your arithmetic is apt to be wrong. Marcel Aubut’s was. Knowing even before he spoke Sunday morning that Canada’s athletes would not equal the 26 medals they won in Vancouver four years ago — let alone exceed that count by even one, as Own The Podium had hoped — the CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee put the best possible spin on the results, and he wasn’t wrong.

Or, he wasn’t wrong at the time.

“We always said that this goal was ambitious, and we knew that only a couple of medals would make the difference,” Aubut said.

“We came closer than ever to the top. We improved on the situation in Vancouver, which was a great Games for us, where we were 11 medals from the top. We are talking about four here.

“But there is a new reality, and that reality is a very competitive landscape. No country dominated the medals. In Vancouver, the U. S. just ran away and they were just flying on their own. “

“Here, the top five or six nations are separated by just a few medals. “It could change every hour.” He had that right. Within an hour, the Russians swept the podium in the final cross- country ski event, the 50- km mass start, and the number wasn’t four any more. Two hours later, they won their final medal of the Games, gold in four- man bobsleigh.

Russia, heavily criticized at home after winning just 15 medals, only three of them gold, in Vancouver, took an astounding 13 gold medals and 33 overall in Sochi to win its home Olympics going away.

Canada was ( tied for) third in gold medals with 10, and was fourth in total medals, with 25, just one behind Norway and three behind the U. S.

“The landscape has changed at a speed you can’t imagine,” Aubut said. “But one thing I will say is that when you invest, you see the results right away. We did it in Vancouver, and the Russians have done it here, just four years later.”

“There’s zero disappointment,” he said, in falling one medal short of Canada’s total in Vancouver. “I am thrilled by what I saw. We could end up, potentially, with 10 gold. And we are not at home, we are in Russia. And Russia showed how they could do at home.”

“I think we did exceptionally well,” said chef de mission Steve Podborski. “We are right near the top of the medal count, within striking distance of being No. 1 on the planet. These guys know how to win, how to compete. It’s a bit of a change in how Canadians think of themselves. I couldn’t be happier.”

Aubut listed the notable achievements here — two Canadians on the same podium at four events, an alpine medal for the first time in 20 years, double gold in curling, where Jennifer Jones also made women’s history by going undefeated … and he was holding his breath for the men’s team (“I pray for this,” he said) to make it another golden sweep in hockey.

“Curling was like a flagship for Canada. As far as hockey, I don’t think I exaggerate in saying it is the greatest comeback ever in women’s hockey at the Olympics,” he said, of Canada’s impossible 3- 2 overtime win over the U. S. in the gold- medal final.

But there were also 36 medals awarded here that weren’t available in Vancouver, and Canada won five medals in them, so the race to 26 wasn’t exactly on the level.

“Our best- ever showing was three medals in freestyle in Lillehammer,” said freestyle director Peter Judge. “We added two new disciplines mid-quadrennial, so to surpass that number should have been, and was, expected.

“We came into the Games targeting five, maybe six. But we had almost a perfect storm. We had six medals in 60 hours, which was a bit of a scary ride for some of the staff, but also a phenomenal ride and a tremendous credit to this group.”

Freestyle’s seven medals fell one short of the best- ever medal haul by a single sport — Canadian speed skaters won eight in Turin — and it would have had the record if it had counted ski- cross as a freestyle discipline, as the International Ski Federation does.

“But the gene pool for ski cross really comes from alpine,” said Judge, who leaves Freestyle Canada on March 1 to take over Own The Podium’s winter sports program. “We don’t want to take credit for something we didn’t do.”

The figure skating team won three medals, all silver, but couldn’t count it as a major triumph because it had a realistic shot at two or even three gold. The short track speedskaters fell short of their potential, as did the snowboarders.

What Canada did do here, though, undeniably, was develop a sense of a larger mission among the athletes, who were closer and more unified as a whole Olympic team than ever could have been the case at home.

Most every successful team or individual had a story to tell of being inspired by someone in a different sport — often directly.

“When we were 1- 2, ( Team Canada hockey coach) Mike Babcock made a point of coming up to us at Canada Olympic House, we were kind of bummed out after our second loss, and he stopped us and gave us a good five to seven- minute pep talk about how adversity can do some wonderful things. He can really do that,” said E. J. Harnden, the second on Brad Jacobs’ gold- medal curling team.

The women’s hockey team was pumped up by a letter from goldmedal bobsledders Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse. They went out and beat the U. S., and paid it forward, writing an inspirational note to the men’s team before their semifinal showdown with the Americans.

“We were talking to some of the hockey guys after their game, and the first thing they said was ‘ Congrats, guys. We watched in the dressing room before we went on the ice.’ And literally it’s like being a family. So many different athletes from different walks of life — the NHL guys, us, all these athletes, and nobody looks on anyone else as any different.”

“Some of the hockey girls and the women’s hockey coach said they caught the end of our game just before their warmup, and they said some of them were like, ‘ OK, awesome, now we’re ready to fight,’” said Jennifer Jones’s second, Jill Officer.

“For us to actually be part of that and motivate others is ... it’s quite bizarre, but very, very cool.”