With six days of competition remaining in Vancouver each nation has a good idea if their campaign targets are going to be met. It is quite a mixed bag as you can imagine.

Around the Main Press Centre its tears down in the Russia compound, the Italians are sobbing in their hankies, the USA are dancing on tables and the Australians are still basking in the glow of gold.

“I think the team has done exceptionally well,” says Australian Team Media Director Mike Tancred.

The team is on the verge of the best ever Australian Olympic Winter Team medal haul ever. If either Jacqui Cooper, Lydia Lassila or Liz Gardner can win a medal in the aerials final tomorrow to add to the gold won by Torah Bright and the silver by Dale Begg-Smith.

“The signs for the future are very encouraging with the young athletes coming through,” Tancred said.

But while our eyes have been glued to Australia’s home grown athletes, other countries have had their own matrix of experiences. Sports figures have emerged as heroes from the icy battles, or fallen – taking their nations’ expectations with them.

The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) office was still rejoicing in the glory of the gold from last night’s ice dance pairs event when they won another gold, this time in women’s ski cross.

Scott Muir (22) and Tessa Virtue (20) are not only the youngest couple to ever win the event; they are also the first North Americans and perhaps just as importantly took the attention away from the media realisation the Canadian team will not finish on top of the medal tally.

The duo is the toast of the town, with instant celebrity status. They are Canada’s good news story. On the flip side, the country was torn apart, and Vancouver eerily quiet, after the ice hockey team lost to the USA on Sunday. They now play Germany to fight for a berth in the quarter finals.

Yet Canada always predicted they would have a slow medal start, with the majority of their medal chances occurring in the second week with curling, hockey and alpine skiing still ahead. They need 13 medals to better the 24 they won in Turin four years ago.

Down the corridor from the COC is the USA team’s headquarters. Media Manager Bob Condron says this could be the countries biggest winter medal haul ever. They currently have 25 medals, after reaching an all time high of 34 on home soil at Salt Lake City.

Favourites Lindsay Vonn, Bode Miller and Apollo Anton Ohno have all performed, while an emotional moment was seeing circumstances go Vonn’s way after a bruised shin had her competion in doubt. “She could hardly get her boot on. The fact the downhill was delayed three days helped her heal”.    

Spain is ruing the moment their female halfpipe rider, Queralt Castellet, decided to practice in between qualifying third for the finals and the actual finals four hours later. Their best medal chance saw the inside of the pipe at close quarters, suffering injury and withdrawing from the competition.

Likewise Russia is lamenting their lot. “Not happy. Sad”, says their Press Attaché. As hosts for the next Winter Games in Sochi, they had hoped for a bigger tally. They currently sit 11th on the table behind the Netherlands. They picked their first bronze as their favourite moment. “It was our first medal here. We treat all of them like gold”.

Italy feels the same “We normally get a medal in every event,” said a representative. “We’re not sure what happened here”. They are 16 short of their tally in Lillehammer and yet to get a gold.

But just next door, Switzerland isn’t neutral but overjoyed. For a small country of seven million, they have had excellent results. They have won five golds and two bronzes. But that is not the highlight.

“We played well against Canada in the ice hockey”, a smiling Press Attaché said.

Clearly almost as good as winning an Olympic medal. And that is just the Games thus far!

Flip Byrnes
AOC - Vancouver