Olympic roundup: What Canada did on Day 5
Last Updated: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 | 5:30 AM ET
By John Molinaro, CBC Sports
Canada's gold rush seems to be gaining momentum at the Vancouver Winter Olympics.
Maelle Ricker of North Vancouver won the women's snowboard cross event Tuesday to become the second Canadian athlete to win gold at the Games.
The 31-year-old finished well ahead of the three other competitors in the final heat, en route to her first Olympic medal in three appearances at the Winter Games. The victory also allowed her to enter the history books as the first Canadian woman to win Olympic gold at home.
"I'm feeling so happy. I'm pretty shaky and a little bit overwhelmed," Ricker told CBCSports.ca after her win at Cypress Mountain. "I don't think it's fully hit me."
After crossing the finish line, Ricker wrapped herself in a Canadian flag as the crowd roared and she dedicated her gold medal to fans from coast to coast "for all the support, all the cheering, all the help."
Ricker said she was inspired by Quebec's Alexandre Bilodeau's gold-medal performance in the men's moguls at Cypress Mountain on Sunday.
"Watching Alex ski the other night, and then just seeing the amazing interview he gave after his run, it really, really got me fired up," she said. "I was so pumped for today."
Dominique Maltais of Petite-Rivière-St-François, Que., placed 20th in qualifying and did not advance.
Also on Tuesday, the Canadian men's hockey team made its debut, romping to an 8-0 victory over Norway. Jarome Iginla had a hat trick and Dany Heatley added two goals while goalie Roberto Luongo recorded the shutout as the Canadians outshot their opponents 42-15.
This was the best start yet for Canada in the four Olympics since the NHL shut down its schedule to participate. Canada defeated Belarus 5-0 to open the Olympics in 1998, dropped a 5-2 decision to Sweden four years later and downed host Italy 7-2 to begin the 2006 Winter Games.
"It's the first one and we'll get better," said Iginla, who now has eight goals in 13 games in the Olympics. "We were looking forward to this for a long time. To see all that red and white [in the near-capacity crowd of 16,652] was more than I imagined.
"It was a good game for our team to start the tournament that way. It's great to get it going," the Calgary Flames captain said.
In men's curling, Canada's Kevin Martin blew an early 5-1 lead before recovering for a 7-6 extra-end win over Norway's Thomas Ulsrud.
Martin got a piece of the button with the game's final stone to seal the victory.
"You're not going to be able to keep good teams at bay for the whole game, and they came back with that three. And then we got the momentum going again back to our side," said Martin.
"It's not scripted, but that's kind of what we figured it would be," he added, shrugging off the Norwegian comeback. "They're good."
Martin's rink, which includes third John Morris, second Marc Kennedy and lead Ben Hebert, defeated Andy Kapp's German team 9-4 in the second draw Tuesday night.
Martin never trailed in the match, scoring two in the first end and again in the fifth. Kapp scored a single in the eighth end, but Martin took two in the ninth for the victory.
Canada leads the standings with a 2-0 record. Martin's rink has a bye Wednesday.
Canadian champion Patrick Chan didn't have his best skate in the men's figure-skating short program. He scored 81.12 in the short program, well off his personal best of 88.90, and sits in seventh place before Thursday's crucial long program.
The other Canadian in the field is Calgary's Vaughn Chipeur, in 24th place, with a score of 57.22.
Other Canadian results from Tuesday:
Biathlon, men's 12.5-kilometre pursuit — Jean Philippe Leguellec of Quebec City placed 11th overall in a time of 34 minutes 51.9 seconds, with one missed target.
Biathlon, women's 10K pursuit — Megan Tandy of Prince George, B.C., finished 36th (34:02.2), with one missed target.
Women's curling — Cheryl Bernard of Calgary won her tournament-opener 5-4 over Switzerland.
Luge, women's singles — Regan Lauscher of Red Deer, Alta., finished 15th overall (2:49.021); Alex Gough of Calgary was 18th (2:49.391) and Meaghan Simister of Calgary 25th (2:50.47).
Long-track speedskating, women's 500 metres — Christine Nesbitt of London, Ont., placed 10th overall (1:17.57), Shannon Rempel of Winnipeg was 27th (1:18.82) and Anastasia Bucsis of Calgary finished 34th (1:19.755).
