Anderson, Ricker, Robertson carve names in Olympic history

Two golds, one silver for Canadian snowboarders at 2010 Games

Last Updated: Monday, March 1, 2010 | 4:58 AM ET

By Lindsey Craig, CBC Sports

In his fourth and final Olympic Games, Jasey-Jay Anderson finally added an Olympic medal — gold — to his collection. (Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

By the time snowboard cross and parallel giant slalom wrapped up at the 2010 Vancouver Games, three of Canada's medals were from those who compete with a board on their feet.

And if there's one thing Jasey-Jay Anderson, Maëlle Ricker and Mike Robertson will tell you, it's that the increased funding from Own The Podium made the difference.

"If you don't have the money, you have to think inside a certain box, and if funds are available, you can think outside that box and go beyond it," said Anderson, Canada's most decorated snowboarder.

"That's what happened this time around. We did all these extra little steps, and they've been working out."

Robertson, Ricker shine

On Feb. 15, the youngest member of the Canuck boarding contingent, Edmonton's Robertson, 24, won a silver medal in snowboard cross.

Then, the next day, the women came out to prove they're just as strong. In fact, according to colour, they're even stronger.

Whistler's Ricker, 31, won gold in the women's snowboard cross event.

It was her first Olympic medal in three appearances at the Winter Games.

"I'm feeling so happy. I'm pretty shaky and a little bit overwhelmed," she told CBCSports.ca after her win. "I don't think it's fully hit me."

(Canada's Dominique Maltais, the bronze medallist in Turin four years ago, failed to qualify for the final rounds after falling in two preliminary runs.)

But if there's a Canadian snowboarding story that deserves to be told, it belongs to Anderson.

Olympic dream fulfilled

After spending more than half of his life devoted to a dream, on Feb. 27, an Olympic medal was placed around Anderson's neck.

It was golden.

The 34-year-old of Mont-Tremblant, Que., had captured virtually every title the sport had to offer — except an Olympic one.

Plagued by equipment problems and lack of support, the married father of two had nearly thrown in the towel four times.

But an Olympic dream, and then the possibility of achieving it in his own country, spurred him forward.

At the 2010 Games, it came down to one race: the parallel giant slalom men's final on the second last day of the Olympics.

His opponent, Benjamin Karl of Austria, 10 years his junior, had won the first run against him by a convincing margin.

With poor visibility, a failed audio cue at the start gate, and a 0.75 second advantage to Karl, the Canadian stood at the top of the course and thought, "a true athlete thrives on adversity," and tried to be a true athlete.

With those factors against him, Anderson delivered, finishing ahead of Karl to take first place.

For a seasoned athlete who had already announced that Vancouver 2010 would be his fourth and final Games, it was the perfect way to end a hard-fought career.

White delivers

There are few other Olympic athletes with the international star power and complete dominance of Shaun White.

The hype at the Games for the American half-pipe celebrity's performance was huge and he did more than deliver.

His gold medal came on Feb. 17, when he fastened together a series of tricks barely imagined four years ago, including his signature move — the double-McTwist-1260.

With the gold medal guaranteed after a top notch first-run score, White pulled out all the tricks on a triumphant second run that scored even higher.

The victory gave him back-to-back Olympic golds.

"I'm just so happy to feel the win," White told reporters. "And then to put down that last run, it was the best victory run of my life."

Weather woes

Proving to be as much of a threat to athletes as their tough opponents was the weather.

Time and time again, poor visibility, rain and fog on Cypress Mountain delayed and postponed events.

In fact, in women's snowboard cross, difficult conditions nearly prevented eventual gold-medal winner Ricker from advancing to the quarter-finals.

Weather even caused the cancellation and refunding of tickets for roughly 4,000 spectators for each event at the venue.

That's because warm, heavy, heavy rains melted away the base of snow that was to support the general seating area.

Inadequate busing, long exit lines and even a broken food service system added to the list of problems.