Canada at the Winter Olympics





Canada (IOC country code CAN) has competed at every Winter Olympic Games, and has won at least one medal each time. The country's greatest performance was recently at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, where Canadian athletes won 26 medals—two more than the 24 they won in the previous Winter Olympics, in Turin, Italy. Also at the 2010 Games, Canada set a new record for most gold medals won by a country in a single Winter Olympics with 14. This passes the previous record of 13 gold medals in one Games set by the Soviet Union in 1976 and matched by Norway in 2002.

Canada has hosted the winter games twice, in Calgary in 1988, and in Vancouver in 2010. Canada has also hosted the Summer Olympic Games once, in 1976 in Montreal.

Medal tables
{{legend|#ccccff| Hosted Winter Games}}
 * Medals in Winter Games

{{legend|#E9D66B| Leading in that sport}} * ''One of Canada's ice hockey gold medals was won during the 1920 Summer Olympics. This table includes this medal, resulting in the discrepancy between the medals by games and medals by sports tables.''
 * Medals by sport

Canada has never won an Olympic medal in the following current winter sports: Luge, Nordic combined, and Ski jumping.

Biathlon
Canada's only medals in biathlon were won by Myriam Bedard in the Albertville and Lillehammer games.

Bobsleigh
Canada has won four gold medals in bobsleigh: the surprising victory by Vic Emery's four-man team in Innsbruck (1964), by Pierre Lueders two-man team in Nagano (1998) and twice by Kaillie Humphries' two-woman team in Vancouver (2010) and Sochi (2014).

Skeleton
In the 2006 Turin games Mellisa Hollingsworth-Richards won Canada's first medal in skeleton and later Duff Gibson became the first Canadian to win a gold medal in skeleton in the men's event. At the 2010 Vancouver games, Jon Montgomery won a gold in the men's event.

Curling
Curling is one of the most popular sports in Canada, and both the men's and women's teams have won a medal at each of the five Olympics curling has been held at so far. Canadian curlers also finished in the top 3 places when curling was a demonstration sport in 1988 and 1992. The women's team in 1998, led by skip Sandra Schmirler, the men's team in 2006, led by skip Brad Gushue, the men's team in 2010, led by Kevin Martin, the women's team in 2014 led by Jennifer Jones and the men's team in 2014 led by Brad Jacobs have won gold medals.

Ice hockey
Hockey is Canada's national winter sport, and Canadians are extremely passionate about the game. The nation has traditionally done very well at the Olympic games, winning 6 of the first 7 gold medals. However, by 1956 its amateur club teams and national teams could not compete with the teams of government-supported players from the Soviet Union. When Canada's best players (from the National Hockey League) were able to compete starting in 1998, expectations were high for the country's return to glory, but the Czech Republic won gold and the team fell to Finland in the bronze medal game. Canada finally won its first hockey gold in 50 years in Salt Lake City in 2002, sparking national celebrations. The women's team also won gold in 2002, after winning only silver in the first women's Olympic competition in Nagano. The women repeated as champions in 2006.

The 2010 games are the first Olympics to take place in an NHL market since the league's players started to compete in the games, as Vancouver is home to the Vancouver Canucks.

Note: Ice hockey was part of the Summer Olympic program for the 1920 games in Antwerp, but is listed here for completeness. As it was held at a Summer Games, it is not counted in the total for Canada's performance at the Winter games.

Luge
Canada has never won an Olympic medal in luge. Their best finish was fourth in the women's race at the 2014 games, men's doubles race at the 2014 games and team relay at the 2014 games.

Figure skating
Canada has won at least one medal in figure skating in 13 of the 16 post-war Winter Olympic games (since 1948). Canada's gold medalists are Barbara Ann Scott (1948) and the pairs of Barbara Wagner and Robert Paul (1960) and Jamie Salé and David Pelletier (2002). Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir celebrated a number of firsts at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics when they won the gold medal for Ice Dancing: their first gold medal at their first Olympics, and the first North Americans as well as the youngest pair to win gold in this event. Other notable Canadian skaters include 1976 Bronze medalist Toller Cranston, as well as Brian Orser and Elvis Stojko, both of whom won silver medals in successive games.

Short track speed skating
Canada has benefitted from the addition of short track speed skating to the Olympic program in 1992, winning multiple medals at each games since. Marc Gagnon, who won 3 gold and 2 bronze medals between 1994 and 2002 and François-Louis Tremblay, who has collected 2 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze medals from 2002 to 2010, are among only 5 Canadian Olympians to win a total of 5 medals.

Speed skating
Gaetan Boucher (1000 m and 1500 m in 1984), Catriona Le May Doan (500 m in 1998 and 2002), Cindy Klassen (1500 m in 2006), Clara Hughes (5000 m in 2006) and Christine Nesbitt (1000 m in 2010) are Canada's gold medalists in speed skating. In 2006, Cindy Klassen became the first Canadian to ever win five medals in one winter games, winning one gold (1500 m), two silver (Team Pursuit and 1000 m) and two bronze medals (3000 m and 5000 m). She also won a bronze medal in the 2002 games, giving her 6 medals, surpassing short track speed skater Marc Gagnon for the title of most decorated Canadian Winter Olympian. Clara Hughes also has 5 medals, having won 2 bronze medals at the 1996 Summer Olympics, one in 2002 Winter Olympics (making her the first Canadian to have won a medal in both the Summer and Winter Olympics) and two in 2006, making her one of only four Canadians to win five or more medals.

Alpine skiing
Canada's most celebrated alpine skier is Nancy Greene, who won gold and silver at the 1968 games in Grenoble.

Cross country skiing
Canada's first medal in cross country skiing was the gold won by Beckie Scott in Salt Lake City (2002), the first time a North American woman won any Olympic medal in this sport. Chandra Crawford followed this up at the next games with a gold medal in the sprint event, and the team of Scott and Sara Renner also won a silver medal in Turin (2006).

Freestyle skiing
Canada has enjoyed success in freestyle skiing after its introduction to the Winter Olympics in 1992. Jean-Luc Brassard (1994), Jennifer Heil (2006), Alexandre Bilodeau (2010 & 2014) & Justine Dufour-Lapointe (2014) have won gold in the moguls event. Ashleigh McIvor (2010) and Marielle Thompson (2014) have both won gold in the ski cross event with Kelsey Serwa taking silver next to Thompson (2014).

Canadian skiers also finished in the top 3 positions in aerials at the 1988 and 1992 games, when it was a demonstration sport.

Nordic combined
Canada has never won an Olympic medal in the Nordic combined competition. Their best finish was tenth in the individual normal hill competition at the 1932 games.

Ski jumping
Canada has never won an Olympic medal in ski jumping. Their best finish was seventh in the men's large hill competition at the 1988 games.

Snowboarding
Ross Rebagliati won a gold medal in snowboarding when the sport made its Olympic debut at the 1998 Nagano games. Initially he was stripped of the medal when traces of marijuana were found in his blood during a drug test, but the IOC reversed its decision after an appeal a few days later because marijuana was only a restricted substance, not a banned substance.