24! (Not the TV Show)

The Win­ter Olympics are just about over, and the final medal tally is in. Canada won a record 24 medals. To put that num­ber in con­text, it’s 1 less than the United States, and 5 less than Ger­many. No other coun­try got more. What’s more, even with that Third Place in total medals, there were 11 fourth place fin­ishes (often a hair-width away from a bronze) and 7 fifth places. With the next Win­ter Olympics tak­ing place right here in Van­cou­ver, you couldn’t have a bet­ter record or atti­tude com­ing into it. The only sore point: That medal count of 24 is just 1 shy of not only the US, but the goal that was set prior to Turin. Iron­i­cally, it would have been 25 if it hadn’t been for the poor per­for­mance in the one sport that Canada is defined by: Men’s Hockey. No mat­ter, the Women’s Hockey team did spec­tac­u­larly, as did Canada’s Women Ath­letes in gen­eral. In any case, con­grat­u­la­tions to all of Team Canada!