Four members of Canada's gold medal-winning men's eight rowing team show off their hardware after arriving at Vancouver International Airport Monday. Left to right, Dominic Seiterle, coxswain Brian Price, Adam Kreek and Malcolm Howard. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)

When rower Krista Guloien led a contingent of 100 Canadian Olympians returning from Beijing down the escalator at Vancouver International Airport Monday she found a country more than satisfied with how the Summer Games turned out.

A new Canadian Press/Harris Decima poll shows Canadians happy with everything from the athletes' efforts at the Games, the organization of events by the host country, China, and the Olympic coverage shown on CBC television.

Canada won 18 medals in Beijing (three gold, nine silver and six bronze), the country's second-best performance ever at a non-boycotted Games. (The Atlanta Games in 1996 produced 22 medals.) And that left everyone in a good mood.

"In the run-up to these Games, it wasn't clear whether broad attention was going to be captured, and obviously it wasn't clear whether people were going to come away pleased with the outcomes," said Bruce Anderson, president of Harris Decima.

"As it turned out, the general sentiment is that the Games were a success, Canada's athletes performed admirably and the coverage provided by the CBC was well regarded, too."

Among the highlights of the survey of more than 1,000 people across the country:

• Canadians were satisfied with the performance of the national team in Beijing. Fully 79 per cent of those surveyed were either very satisfied (26 per cent) or satisfied (53 per cent). Only nine per cent were dissatisfied.
• China's efforts at organizing and running the Olympics met with a solid majority of support as 66 per cent of those surveyed said they were either very impressed (31 per cent) or somewhat impressed (37 per cent). A total of 21 per cent were either not too impressed or not impressed at all.
• Television coverage by CBC Sports, English and French, also received high marks. Seventy-two per cent of Canadians who answered the survey thought the coverage was either excellent (35 per cent) or good (37 per cent). Just one in 10 believed the coverage to be fair (eight per cent) or poor (two per cent).

Across the country, 77 per cent said they watched some portion of the Games on television, with the average person taking in 13.76 hours (the survey was taken between last Thursday and the closing of the Games on Sunday).

Those who watched the Games had the highest number of positive reactions toward the athletes, organizers and the CBC.

A sample of this size has a margin of error of 3.1 per cent 19 times out of 20.

With files from the Canadian Press