21st Winter Olympics: Day 3 Recap

Wow what a day for Canada! Today had lots of amazing stories that came out of the games, as well as a personal story that I want to share.

1. Canada Wins Its First Gold Medal on Home Soil

Finally! On day 3rd what seemed to be the impossible for Canada, has now happened. In the men's freestyle skiing, Quebec native Alexandre Bilodeau claimed the gold medal. He put out an amazing run that will go down in history as being the first gold medal performance on Canadian soil.

The 3 other Canadian freestyle skiers that qualified for the finals did not disappoint either. Vincent Marquis finished 4th, Pierre-Alexandre Rousseau finished 5th, and youngster Maxime Gingras finished 11th.

2. Kristina Groves wins 3rd Olympic medal

Kristina Groves walked away with her 3rd Olympic medal tonight, and first of what hopefully is many in the Vancouver games. Groves finished 3rd in the 3000m Speed Skating. Her team mates were also in the hunt with Clara Hughes finishing 5th and Cindy Klassen finishing 14th. All three women still have 3-4 races left in these Olympic games.

3. Pairs Short Skate

The Pair's Short Skate was tonight. Canada has 2 teams competing in this. Although we are not favored for a medal, the Canadian teams are still though to finish well. Currently we are in 5th and 6th place, with the Free Skate tomorrow. It would be great if one of our teams could finish on the podium. All we can do it hope for the best for these young teams.

4. Men's Luge

Today the Men's Luge competition came to a close after a scary week for these athletes. Although Canada did not win a medal in the men's competition, we still had a great competition. We had 3 athletes competing and they all finished in the top 20. Our highest finisher was Samuel Edney, who finished 7th. This is the highest finish ever for a Canadian in an Olympic games.

5. Ignite the Dream

My friend Shaun is spending a week in Vancouver as part of the pyro team for the Olympic Games. This is as close of a personal connection as I will get to the games, but still think its a great story.

Shaun is helping do the Ignite the Dream show twice nightly downtown Vancouver. The show runs at 9:30 and 11:00 Pacific Time. I just finished watching the 9:30 show and it was awesome. There is a great mix of music, pyro, fireworks, and a few surprise guests. The show streams live on the BC Government website. I encourage you to check it out!

http://www.gov.bc.ca/