Vancouver 2010 exemplifies the new millennium of the Canadian female athlete

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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The Delicious Irony of Canada's First Home Olympic Gold Medal Victory

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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