It's hard to believe it was less than a week ago that I wrote Own The Podium Should Have Under Promised and Over Delivered. It had become apparent that our total medal count was going to be much lower than the United States' and we were going to fall short on our pledge to "Own the Podium".
I felt our athletes were being unfairly blamed for under delivering on Own the Podium's overly ambitious promise to "place first in the total medal count at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games".
That was six days ago. Everything's different now. Canada finished so strong, delivering the most desired of medals when Crosby scored the golden goal. That was gold medal #14, the gold medal that set a winter Olympics record and sent this nation into a delightful frenzy.
Let's take a look at the final medal count for the 2010 Olympic games in Vancouver.
As mentioned, that 14 gold medals Canada won is the all-time record for a single nation at any winter Olympics. Of course, that also means we smashed the record for a host nation, despite never winning a gold medal during our previous two Olympics in 1976 and 1988. That 14 gold medals is 4 more than the 2nd place country, Germany, and 5 more than the country with the most total medals, the USA.
14 gold medals is, without a doubt in my heart and mind, evidence of podium ownership. Top rung, baby. OTP can define it however they like, I'm taking what's rightfully ours, on behalf of this awesome country.
The last two weeks was one hell of a ride. I'm sorry to see it end, but if you're going out, you might as well go out with a bang.
