Vancouver Blogger Sriseth

Within a pace of 3 days Canada's luck changed from desperation to jubilation. Canada was stunned by USA in much hyped hockey match on Sunday sending shock-waves across the host nation. But by the end of Wednesday, the chances of winning that ultimate gold medal in Men's Hockey seemed very much assured. The last few days were a wild ride for die hard Canadian fans. Not only because of hockey, but also with overall performance of Canadian athletes.

Super Weekend turned into a Super Nightmare
After Jon Montgomery won the gold in Men's Skeleton on Friday night, energized Canadian fans poured into the streets of Vancouver in celebration. The party continued into the weekend (dubbed the super weekend) with tens of thousands of fans filling up both inside and outside of the venues. Un-Vancouver like gorgeous weather continued into the weekend pulling Vancouerites out of their home into the streets in Downtown. But  Canadian athletes disappointed them by failing to get on the podium and in few occasions Canadians watched their athletes choking with the finish line in sight. The nightmare continued with the loss of men's hockey match to USA and the loss to the Chinese by ladies' curling team. Canadians went to sleep on Sunday with huge disappointment.

Weather turned Normal
With Vancouver turning into more usual Wintery weather, Canada's luck slowly started to change. May be it wasn't weather that started the change. It may be the near flawless performance by Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir in Ice Dance competition that energized other Canadians to perform better. On Monday night, Tessa and Scott put on their third consecutive faultless dance to earn the gold medal, the first by a non-European pair and the youngest. On Tuesday it was Vancouver girl Ashleigh McIvor's turn to show the World how good Canadians are in winter sports. Ashleigh won the Ladies' Ski Cross in an exquisite performance.

Then came Super Wednesday
Picking up on the tone set by Tessa-Scott and Ashleigh, Canadian athletes rallied up to put up some great performances on Wednesday, making it Canada's day at the Olympics. Clara Hughes on her final Olympic appearance, skated majestically to win the bronze to add to her already impressive Olympic medal tally. Ladies short track 3000m final produced another silver. Most anticipated feature of the day, men's hockey match-up between Russia and Canada brought glory to back to team Canada. But the highlight of the day was yet to come. For the first time in this Olympics, Canada's two bobsleigh teams brought a true meaning to  'Own the Podium' campaign by winning both Gold  and Silver. Withstanding the pressure put on by Germans and Americans, both bobsleigh teams (Kaillie Humphries/ Heather Moyse & Helen Upperton/Shelley-Ann Brown) ran flawless races to secure medals. At the end,  Day 13 became the luckiest day for Canada do far in the Olympics.

Looking ahead
With USA and Germany already far ahead of Canada in the medal standing, Canada's plan of earning highest number of total medals is probably out of reach now. But Canada can still end up with a decent performance to preserve the pride as the hosts. Canada has the chance to win both Curling gold medals after finishing  at top after the round robin sessions. Canada is the favorite to win gold in tomorrow's women's hockey final and men's hockey team has now become the prohibitive favourites after beating Russia. So, there are 4 gold medals up for grabs in team events. In addition, Canada can hope for medals from Steve Omischl in men's aerials, Joannie Rochette in figure skating as well as several short track and long track skating events. If Canadian athletes get inspiration from today's successes and performed at their best, Canada can end up with more than 20 medals and with the highest number of gold medals than any other country.