Connect producer Lani Krantz blogs from the Vancouver Olympic Games.

It's hard to imagine anything like an Olympic Games experience. From the feeling that everything in your life falls short unless your hockey team can beat Russia to the first hand experience of seeing Canadians take gold, there's a fleeting sense that your hopes lie in the same place as every other Canadian person you meet.

Even when our ambition of owning the podium seemed darkest, there was still a fever among the throng of Canadians on the streets. The Olympic wear superstore on Granville Street had a lineup around the block for days with everyone fighting for the last medium red "Canada" emblazoned sweatshirt for their loved ones.

The pavilions, too, are hopping. Saskatchewan has a busy house. Quebec's is so rockin' that it doesn't even have a roof. And Northern House, well, they've got a stuffed polar bear and real life head-pulling competitions. What's not to celebrate?

I had the privilege of seeing our women's hockey team skate and shoot to the podium in Canada Hockey Place and that house was positively vibrating with victory and elation. Later, a packed bar on Granville Street fell silent while Joannie Rochette glided into everyone's heart with a performance that no one who knows her story will soon forget. For any Olympic watcher here, her bronze medal made her a champion.

It feels like the tide has changed for our athletes and suddenly, Olympic excitement is renewed.

And it's starting to seem that whatever the promise of owning the podium was supposed to mean, Canadians know that we have a lot to be proud of and these Olympic Games may yet prove to be the best yet.