With all four of the host country's medals, day 13 of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games was anything but unlucky for Canadian female athletes.
It was an historic day of good fortune for Canadian women, who scored one gold, two silvers and a bronze and who have now figured in 12 of Canada's 15 medals at Vancouver 2010 (one of which was shared by Olympic ice dance champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir).
Golds by Maelle Ricker in snowboard cross, Kristine Nesbitt in speed skating, Ashleigh McIvor in ski cross and Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse in bobsleigh have not only led the way for Canada at Vancouver 2010, they exemplify the new millennium of the Canadian female athlete.
Turin 2006 saw 16 of 24 Canadian medals won by our women. In Salt Lake 2002, it was 10 of 17 (with one shared in pairs figure skating by Jamie Sale and David Pelletier).
The new millennium -- with Salt Lake 2002, Turin 2006 and Vancouver 2010 adding up to women figuring in 38 of 56 Winter Games medals or 68 per cent -- underlines a new level of dominance by Canada's female athletes. But it's important to note that it only extends a female tradition of Canadian winter sport excellence that's more than 50 years in the making.
Canadian women have now been involved in 57 of 92 -- or 62 per cent -- of Winter Games medals won since St. Moritz 1948.
This all speaks to Canada's status as one of the world's most progressive societies when it comes to female sport, one that has picked up steam each decade since skier Nancy Greene Raine won two medals at Grenoble 1968 and when pioneers such as the late Carol Anne Letheren and Vancouver's own Marion Lay helped shape Canadian sport culture and pushed the country's sport system to become more accessible to women in sport.
Letheren and Lay were among those who leveraged Greene Raine's success in the 1970s to create opportunities for Canadian women at all levels; in competition, coaching, officiating and administration. They built on the comparatively stronger political and economic clout held by women in Canada and, in turn, saw both the public and private sectors prepared to invest in women in sport well ahead of the pace of other countries, especially in traditionally male-dominated disciplines such as hockey.
Thanks to those efforts, Canada headed into the new millennium as the world leader in winter team sports such as ringette and women's hockey and it was arguably home to the world's most progressive system when it came to women in sport. It's a classic case of long-term leadership and continued attention to progress paying off big dividends.
Those dividends include among the world's highest per capita participation levels for girls and women in sport, many women among the country's highest-profile athletes and and a fourth consecutive berth in the Olympic women's hockey final at Vancouver 2010 against another beacon of women's sport, the United States.
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