John Kucera's victory in the men's downhill highlighted a barrage of Canadian medals at various World Cup and world championships. (Sergey Ponomarev/Associated Press)

With the Vancouver Olympics officially one year away, fans were treated to a ceremony on Thursday to kick off the countdown in Whistler, B.C.

During the festivities, volunteer hockey coach Caleb Taylor of Regina was selected as the first Olympic torchbearer for the 2010 Vancouver Games.

Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, was also on hand to announce to an estimated crowd of 1,500 that the Olympic torch relay will bring together Canadians across 45,000 kilometres.

As for the competitions in 2010, the nation got a taste of what the Canadian Olympic Committee hopes will be successfully Winter Games.

This past weekend heightened Canada's expectations for Vancouver as Canadians claimed a whopping 15 gold, seven silver and six bronze medals at various World Cup and world championships.

Leading the way was Canadian skier John Kucera's gold-medal victory in the men's downhill at the world alpine championships in Val d'Isère, France.

The Calgary native became the first-ever Canadian male skier to win a world Alpine title.

Olympic aerial skiers Jennifer Heil and Steve Omischl showed their prowess by winning World Cup events at Cypress Mountain in West Vancouver — site of the Olympic venue for the freestyle events.

The results have been a good sign for the COC, which is expecting its athletes to contend for the top of the medal standings in Vancouver.

Canada will also be looking to shed the embarrassing label of being the only host country not to win a gold.

But officials don't envision Canadians repeating the futility of the 1976 Montreal Olympics or 1988 Calgary Games.

"I can state unequivocally, and give you an absolute guarantee, that we're going to have a number of gold medals in Vancouver," said Chris Rudge, the COC's chief executive officer.

With files from the Associated Press