Olympic roundup: What Canada did on Day 16

Last Updated: Sunday, February 28, 2010 | 1:50 AM ET

By John Molinaro, CBC Sports

It was a record-setting day for Canada at the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

Canadian athletes scooped up three gold medals Saturday to push their total gold tally to 13, more than any other country.

With just one day of competition remaining, Canada is assured of winning the most gold medals at the Games.

Canada can still win one more gold Sunday in the men's hockey final. But even if it doesn't, Canada has already established a record for gold medals by a host country in a Winter Olympics — the previous record was 10 by Norway (1994) and the U.S. (2002).

In terms of gold medals, this is the most succcessful Canadian Olympic team ever, winning more more gold in Vancouver than in any Winter or Summer Games.

Canadians earned 10 gold at the 1984 Summer Games and the previous Canadian record for the Winter Games was seven, both 2002 and 2006.

Canada has also tied the record for the most gold medals at a Winter Games, set by the Soviet Union in 1976 and Norway in 2002.

Currently, team Canada sits third in the overall standings with 25 medals, behind the United States (36) and Germany (29).

Rudge pleased

No, Canada won't overtake the U.S. in the overall medal count, but Canadian Olympic Committee chairman Chris Rudge is pleased with the results, nonetheless.

"I think once you see our final numbers, the number of golds and silvers is going to be exceptional, compared to where we historically have been," he said.

Kevin Martin earned a gold medal for Canada on Saturday with a 6-3 win over Norway's Thomas Ulsrud in the men's curling final at the Vancouver Olympic Centre.

After losing gold to Norway at the Salt Lake Games by one shot, Martin returned to the final with his Edmonton-based rink of Marc Kennedy, Ben Hebert and John Morris to capture the gold medal that had eluded the skip in 2002.

"Finally, it took a long time, a lot of years," Martin said. "The hard work's worth it."

The win caps off an undefeated tournament showing for the Martin foursome, going 11-0 and outscoring their opponents with a combined 87-42.

And speaking of dreams coming true, Canadian snowboarder Jasey-Jay Anderson won the men's parallel giant slalom event Saturday.

The 34-year-old from Mont-Tremblant, Que., is the country's most celebrated snowboarder. However, in four appearances at the Winter Games, he had never won an Olympic medal.

After battling hard all day, Austria's Benjamin Karl narrowly edged Anderson out in the first of two runs in the final. But the Canadian battled the dense fog, chilling rain and an almost 8-10ths of a second disadvantage to find his moment in Olympic history.

"I love being in that situation, where I have to rise above the challenge and try to dig as deep as I can and see what's there," he told CTV. "There's no better feeling."

Matthew Morison of Burketon, Ont., finished in 11th spot while Toronto's Michael Lambert was 12th. Neither Canadian rider could get past the qualifiers for the quarter-final.

Canada's first gold medal on the day came in speedskating.

Shut out on the Richmond Olympic Oval so far and with just one more chance at the top of the podium, the Canadian men's speedskaters pulled off a strong victory over the United States in the team pursuit.

The team of Denny Morrison, from Fort St. John, B.C., Lucas Makowsky of Regina and Mathieu Giroux of Montreal beat the Americans by 21-100ths of a second over the eight-lap, 3,200-metre event.

"We went into these Olympics with high expectations for our men," said coach Marcel Lacroix. "It didn't come true, but at least we're able as a team to say, let's put this behind us."

Canada jumped out on the American threesome of veteran Chad Hedrick (a four-time career medallist taking part in his last race), Brian Hansen and Jonathan Kuck quickly, building a 73-100ths of a second lead by the end of two laps.

But Hedrick helped lead a U.S. rally and that was down to 28-100ths of a second with three laps left. That was as close as the Americans would get, however, and the gap began to spread again over the final 400 metres.

Canada's winning time of 3:41.37 was faster than the day before, when Canada upset Norway in the semifinal.

Also on Saturday, Canada's Lyndon Rush raced off with an Olympic bronze medal in the men's four-man bobsleigh competition at Whistler Sliding Centre.

Rush piloted Canada 1 to the second medal ever in the event for the country, behind the gold in 1964 by driver Vic Emery.

Teammates David Bissett of Edmonton, Calgary's Lascelles Brown and Chris Le Bihan of Grande Prairie, Alta., helped push Rush into second through three runs.

But it was the way the final run of four that must have stuck just a little for the resident of Sylvan Lake, Alta.

Rush, who was born in Humboldt, Sask., had left at the top of the track with a 9-100ths of a second lead on Germany's two-time Olympic four-man champion Andre Lange, and by the bottom was 1-100ths of a second back.

Lange, with four Olympic bobsleigh golds behind him, including the two-man last Sunday, was outstanding in his final run Saturday, putting in a 51.36-second effort — best of the 20 sleds.

Half an hour after the medal ceremony, Rush began to enjoy the moment.

"It wasn't triumphant then, it's starting to become triumphant now," Rush, 29, said. "We had 'em for three heats and to give it away in the last heat, I was mad.

"Yeah, we won an Olympic bronze, but I like racing, right, and when you come up short on the last heat, you're mad."

Other Canadian results from Saturday:

Alpine skiing, men's slalom: Julien Cousineau of Lachute, Que., was eighth with a combined time of 1:40.66; North Vancouver's Michael Janyk finished 13th, while Calgary's Trevor White was 26th.

Cross-country skiing, women's 30K, mass start: Sara Renner of Canmore, Alta., was 16th (1:34:04.2); Madeleine Williams of Canmore, Alta., was 46th (1:42:33.7).

Speedskating, women's team pursuit: Canada (Kristina Groves, Christine Nesbitt, Brittany Schussler) won the C-final against the Netherlands after losing to the U.S. in the quarter-finals.