Team Canada Wins Gold

On Feb. 24, 2002, that the Canadian men’s ice hockey team won a gold medal at the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. Team Canada beat Team USA by a score of 5-2 in the finals to capture their first Olympic gold medal in men’s ice hockey in 50 years.

Team Canada, poses with their flag and Gold Medals at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

Assistant captain Joe Sakic was named the tournament MVP, finishing third in scoring with 7 points (4 goals, 3 assists).  Sakic did his best work in the finals, burying two goals and setting up another two for a total of four points.  “Burnaby Joe” scored the eventual game-winner to break a 2-2 tie with a laser of a wrist shot, which beat Mike Richter late in the second period.

They would score two more from there and listen to the Canadian fans in attendance sing “O Canada” as the final seconds ticked off the clock.

Once again Team Canada won the Gold Medal in this years Winter Olympics, taking down Sweden at the 2014 Sochi games. While the Americans fell to Finland in the Bronze Medal game after falling to Team Canada in the semi-finals.

The United States has the most medals of any team in men’s Olympic Hockey play with 22, but the Canadians and Swedish are tied in second with 21 medals. 

 

However, the Canadians have the most Gold medals of any team in Olympic history with nine, seven more than both Sweden and the United States. 

 

The United States has the most Silver medals with eight, four more than Canada who is second with four. Sweden has the most Bronze medals in Olympic competition with four, tied with Czechoslovakia.

Yamaguchi Wins Olympics Gold

On Feb. 21, 1992, figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi won an Olympic gold medal in women’s figure skating. It would be the first, and only, Olympic medal won by Yamaguchi during her figure skating career.

Going into the ’92 Albertville Games, the United State’s Tonya Harding and Japan’s Midori Ito held the advantage of being able to consistently land their triple axels, while Yamaguchi decided to concentrate on her artistry and her triple-triple combinations. That turned out to be a great decision, as she went on to win the competition, despite a couple of slip-ups during her free program. That was largely due to the fact that neither Harding nor Ito were able to land their triple axels.

United State figure skating star Kristi Yamaguchi on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1992 after winning the Gold Medal at the Albertville Winter Olympics.

After successfully defending her World title later that year, Yamaguchi would turn professional and tour with Stars on Ice for several years.

Yamaguchi also won another World Figure Skating Championships in 1991 and a U.S. Figure Skating Championships in 1992. She won one junior world title in 1988 and two national titles in 1989 and 1990 as a pair’s skater with Rudy Galindo.

Yamaguchi was a local commentator on figure skating for San Francisco TV station KNTV (NBC 11) during the 2006 Winter Olympics. In 2006 Yamaguchi was the host of WE TV Series Skating's Next Star, created and produced by Major League Figure Skating, then in 2008, Yamaguchi became the celebrity champion in the sixth season of Dancing with the Stars.

Yamaguchi received the Inspiration Award at the 2008 Asian Excellence Awards. Two days after her Dancing with the Stars champion crowning, she received the 2008 Sonja Henie Award from the Professional Skaters Association.

Among her other awards are the Thurman Munson Award, Women's Sports Foundation Flo Hyman Award, and the Great Sports Legends Award. She is also a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee Olympic Hall of Fame, World Skating Hall of Fame, and the US Figure Skating Hall of Fame.

In 2010 Yamaguchi worked as a daily NBC Olympics skating broadcast analyst on NBC's Universal Sports Network. During the 2010 Winter Olympics, Kristi was also a special correspondent for the Today Show.

Yamagucci has also seen the silver screen as an actress in both the 1994 film D2: The Mighty Ducks and 2005 film Go Figure. In both movies she acted as herself.

She also has graced the pages of novels, authoring three books including Figure Skating for Dummies, PURE GOLD and Always Dream.

Nagano Olympics Open

On Feb. 7, 1998, the Opening Ceremonies for the 18 Winter Olympic games open at Nagano, Japan.

Seventy-two nations and 2,176 participants, 1,389 men and 757 women, contested in seven sports and 72 events at 15 venues.

The Games saw the introduction of women's ice hockey, curling and snowboarding. National Hockey League players were allowed to participate in the men's ice hockey again.

The ’98 games are most remembered for Bjorn Dæhlie’s performance. He won three gold medals in cross-country skiing, making him the most-winning Winter Olympic competitor ever, becoming the first winter Olympics athlete to earn eight career gold medals and twelve total medals.

Alpine skier Hermann Maier survived a fall in the downhill and went on to win gold in the super-G and giant slalom.

The Netherlands won five of the ten speed skating events, including two each by Gianni Romme and Marianne Timmer. Canada beat Denmark in the women's curling final, securing the latter their first Winter Olympic medal ever.

Women's ice hockey was contested at the Olympic games for the first time ever, and the United States beat the Canadians 3–1 for the gold medal. United States went undefeated in the women's tournament. The Czech Republic defeated Russia by a score of 1–0 for the men's gold medal, while Finland won both the men's and women's bronze medals for ice hockey.

Cross-country skier Bjorn Dæhlie’s of Norway won three gold medals in Nordic skiing to become the first winter Olympian to earn eight career gold medals and twelve total medals.

Curling returned as an official sport, after having been demoted to a demonstration event after the inaugural Winter Games in Chamonix in 1924

Snowboarding debuted as an official sport.

Players from the NHL were able to compete in men's ice hockey due to a three-week suspension of the NHL season.

Tara Lipinski, 15, narrowly beat Michelle Kwan in women's figure skating to become the youngest champion in an individual event in the history of the Winter Olympics.

Alpine skier Hermann Maier (Austria) survived a fall in the downhill and went on to gold in the super-g and giant slalom.

Speed skaters Gianni Romme and Marianne Timmer won two gold medals each for the Netherlands; 5 out of 10 titles in speed skating went to the Netherlands.

Snowboarder Ross Rebagliati (Canada) won the gold medal, after initially being disqualified for testing positive for marijuana.

Azerbaijan, Kenya, the Republic of Macedonia, Uruguay, and Venezuela made their first appearance at the Olympic Winter Games.

Denmark won their first winter Olympic medal (and only one to date) when they won a silver medal in the women's curling event.

Australia won their first individual Winter Olympic medal when Zali Steggall won bronze in the women's slalom.

Germany won the most medals and the most gold medals in the Olympics with 29 total, 12 Gold medals, nine silver medals and eight bronze medals.

Norway finished second in total medal count and Gold medals, with 25 medals, 10 Gold, 10 Silver and five bronze.

Russia finished third in total medals and Gold medals, with 18 total, nine Gold, six Silver and three Bronzes.

Canada finished fourth overall in total medal count with 15, six Gold, five silver and four bronze.

The United States finished fifth in total medal count with 13 and tied for fourth in Gold medals with Canada, six. The United States also finished with three silver medals and four bronze medals.

Host country Japan finished seventh overall in total medal count with 10 medals, and tied for six with five Gold medals. Japan finished with only one Silver and four Bronze medals.

The United States were the leading nation in athletes appearing in the Olympic games with 186. The next closest was Japan with 156.

Eleven countries; Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil, Cyprus, India, Iran, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Luxembourg, Turkey, Uruguay and Venezuela only had one athlete compete in the games.

Fourteen countries; the Bahamas, Bolivia, Cambodia, Cameroon, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Gambia, Guam, Guinea-Bissau, Laos, Lebanon, Kuwait, Netherlands Antilles and Tajikistan all registered to take part in the games but did not send a team.

The 2014 Winter Games, the 22nd running of the Winter Olympics kicked off at Sochi in Russia last night with men’s figure skating. The games will continue through last February with most coverage coming on NBC.