Team Canada off to great start at Sochi

Canada’s quest to win the medal count at the Winter Olympics is on target. Canada is at the top of the standings in Sochi. In 2010, Canadian athletes won 26 medals — the most won by Canada ever. And that year we tied with Norway for the most gold medals won in the winter games with 14. We picked up another handful of medals Monday; in men’s moguls and in short track speed skating.

It was a great day for Canada as three of our athletes took places on the podium and Canada soared to the top of the medal standings at the Sochi Winter Olympics.

Alexandre Bilodeau won the gold medal in men’s freestyle moguls edging out his teammate Mikael Kingsbury for first place. Bilodeau was the gold medalist in Vancouver 4 years ago. He’s the first Canadian to defend an Olympic crown in any event since Catriona Lemay Doan won speedskating gold in 1998 and 2002. Canada’s first gold of the day was won by short track speedskater Charles Hamelin of Quebec. He raced to victory in the 15-hundred metres — not even his best event. He is a medal favourite in 3 other races. And our women’s hockey team was pushed hard by Finland before firing 3 goals in the third period and a 3-0 final against the feisty Finns. So our medal total is 3 golds, 3 silvers and a bronze. 7 medals in total. The Netherlands and Norway also have 7.

So we could be on track to match or even exceed our medal total from Vancouver.