Canada's first Olympic gold medal won at home was fashioned tonight on the strength of a clutch men's moguls performance by freestyle skier Alex Bilodeau of Rosemere, Que. at 6:18 p.m. PT.
It ended a 33-year gold medal draught that began at Montreal 1976 and continued through Calgary 1988; ending the ignominy of Canada's status as the only country never to win gold as an Olympic host nation.
It underlined the impact that Canadian Jean-Luc Brassard's moguls gold at Lillehammer 1994 had on the sport in Canada, especially in Quebec where his success inspired and spawned the skiers who now dominate the national moguls team: Vancouver 2010 fourth-place finisher Vincent Marquis of Quebec City, No. 5 Pierre-Alexandre Rousseau of Drummondville, Que. and No. 11 Maxime Gingras of St-Hippolyte, Que.
It became instant hall-of-fame Canadian broadcast material for CTV consortium commentators Jamie Campbell (of Rogers Sportsnet) and Veronica Brenner and Michel Fervac-Larose and Brassard himself, who called the French-language coverage for RDS.
It also gave Olympic worldwide partner VISA the cue to run the first congratulatory ad on the occasion of the historic gold, 23 minutes later on CTV in the second commercial break after Bilodeau's victory.
Yet more than anything, Canada's first home gold smacked with the sheer irony (some would say poetic justice) that it came at the expense of reigning Olympic men's moguls champion -- Canadian-born Dale Begg-Smith of Australia.
Bilodeau knocked the Turin 2006 gold medalist from his pedestal nine years after the now Internet spamware millionaire left the Canadian freestyle ski team to pursue his Olympic future in Aussie colours. The irony is deepened by the fact that the 25-year-old Begg-Smith grew up two kilometres from the Cypress Mountain venue where he had to settle for silver and where Bilodeau made history for Canada.
Begg-Smith broke ranks with the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association over the flexibility he wanted as an entrepreneurial teenager. Begg-Smith found that latitude with Australia and rewarded his adopted country with its first Winter Games gold less than three years after becoming an Australian citizen in 2004.
Yet the real irony is that Bilodeau may not have had the capacity or team infrastructure to win gold at Vancouver 2010 without the changes Begg-Smith's defection in 2001 caused in the national freestyle ski program. It led to a new, more flexible approach behind Freestyle Ski Canada, both in terms of training and coaching protocols for the national team.
By extension, it created a stronger, better, deeper freestyle roster for Turin 2006 -- where Begg-Smith's own gold for Australia was matched by Jennifer Heil's women's gold -- and especially for Vancouver 2010.
The irony is driven home not only by Bilodeau's golden moment but by the top-five performances of Marquis and Rousseau. Even without Begg-Smith, three Canadians in the top five should only generate even more attention for moguls in particular and freestyle skiing in general for Sochi 2014 and the Winter Games to follow.
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