Golden Girl

Ashleigh McIvor won Canada's 6th gold medal of the games, today, in Women's Ski Cross!

And, of course, Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue of London, Ontario, gave us our 5th gold yesterday in Ice Dance.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

While our medal total may not be where Canadian officials had hoped, with 6 gold we are only one behind the USA.  The number of top five finishes we have had is similar to the Americans, but we have not been able to turn as many of those into medal positions (it means we have a lot of 4th and 5th place finishes).

There are many opportunities for Canada to do well over the next few days.  Both of our curling teams finished atop the standings after the round robin draws.  Our women's hockey team will meet the USA in the gold medal game, and our Women's Bobsleigh teams sit in 1st and 4th place after two of four runs.  We have contenders in short and long track skating tomorrow too.

In men's hockey, the Canadian team easily defeated Germany but will have to beat Russia tomorrow in order to make it to the medal games (amazing that either Russia or Canada will be eliminated tomorrow!).

Joannie Rochette sits in 3rd place in Women's Figure Skating after the short program, delivering a beautiful and emotionally charged performance, skating only a couple of days after the sudden death of her mother who suffered a heart attack a day after arriving in Vancouver to watch Joannie skate.

Joannie broke down after the performance leaving everyone with a lump in their throat and tears in their eyes.  Scott Hamilton's voice was breaking as he tried to talk on NBC while waiting for the marks to be displayed. 

I know that the 6-time Canadian champion had been (unfairly) developing a reputation for not being able to deliver, but that changed last year with a more confident approach and a mental toughness that carried her to a silver medal at last year's World Championships.

Still, I don't know where she found the strength and courage to be able to deliver the nearly flawless performance today that has given her a real shot at a medal here on Thursday.  Her mom would be so proud.