Day 14 proved to be an emotional one for Canadians at the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Joannie Rochette, whose mother died suddenly of a heart attack just four days ago, won the bronze medal in women’s figure skating.
The Canadian women’s hockey team beat their rivals Team U.S.A. 2-0 to bring home gold for the third Olympics in a row.
Cheryl Bernard and her curling rink won their semifinal game to advance to the gold medal game in her, and the rest of her team’s, first Olympic Games.
Kyle Nissan fell from first to fifth place during the final jump of the men’s aerial event.
Brian Orser, coach of Korean figure skater Yu-Na Kim, finally got his gold medal on home soil – he won silver as a skater in Calgary in 1988 in the “Battle of the Brian’s” against Brian Boitano.
It was a proud day for the U.S.A. nordic combined team, winning gold and silver, as well as Marit Bjoergen of Norway who won her third gold medal of these Olympics.
Here’s the breakdown:
Alpine skiing – women’s giant slalom
Germany’s Viktoria Rebensburg surprised the alpine skiing world Thursday by taking home the Olympic gold medal. She joined the World Cup circuit in 2006 and has only been on the podium once – last month in Italy she won silver.
Tina Maze of Slovenia is a silver medallist once again in these Olympics. The 27-year-old finished just four-one hundredths of a second behind Rebensburg. She also placed second in the super giant slalom.
Austrian skier Elisabeth Georgl won the bronze medal, another repeat medal, as she finished third in the downhill last week.
Cross country – women’s 4X5km relay
Norway’s team, anchored by Marit Bjoergen, crossed the finish line almost 25 seconds ahead of any other team to win the gold medal.
This is Bjoergen’s third gold medal of these Olympic Games making her the first Norwegian woman to ever do so. The 29-year-old also has a bronze medal in Vancouver.
Riita-Liisa Roponen and the German team won silver while Finland took home the bronze.
Curling
Both men’s and women’s Canadian curling teams will be appearing in the gold medal games.
Kevin Martin and his rink beat Sweden 6-3 after stealing deuces two ends in a row. They will meet Norway and Thomas Ulsrud in the finals for a showdown of the two best teams of the Games.
The Norwegian team beat Switzerland in their semi-final 7-5.
Canada’s women were victorious against Switzerland, squeaking by 6-5. Swiss skip Mirjam Ott missed her final shot, which would have scored her team two and forced an extra end.
Cheryl Bernard struggled through a head cold for the past few days. She and her Canadian rink will meet Sweden in the finals after Anette Norberg and her team routed China 9-4.
Figure skating – ladies’ free skate
Joannie Rochette became the first Canadian woman to be on the figure skating podium since Elizabeth Manley in 1988. The 24-year-old won the bronze medal while mourning her mother who died just days before.
Yu-Na Kim came out on top skating a perfect skate and receiving a score that would not be matched. Brian Orser, who won silver in figure skating in the 1988 Calgary Olympics, coaches the 19-year-old from Korea.
Mao Asada of Japan settled for second place behind her rival, Kim.
Freestyle skiing – men’s aerials
Alexei Grishin gave Belarus its first gold medal of the Games finishing first in men’s aerials. He was the bronze medallist in the 2002 Olympics.
American Jeret Peterson performed “The Hurricane” – three flips, full twist in the first, three twists in the second and one twist in the third – to win second place.
Liu Zhongqing won the bronze for China.
Canadian Kyle Nissen lead after the first jump but didn’t have a clean landing on his second, which also had a lesser degree of difficulty, and finished in fifth.
Hockey
The Canadian women’s hockey team won Olympic gold on home ice beating the Americans 2-0.
Both goals were scored in the first period by 18-year-old Marie-Philip Poulin.
This is the third time in a row Canada has won gold.
Finland will fill the third spot on the podium for the first time in women’s hockey since 1998. The team came out victorious over the Swedes 3-2 in overtime.
Nordic combined – individual large hill
The U.S.A. took the top two spots on the podium as Bill Demong and Johnny Spillane worked together to win gold and silver respectively.
This is Spillane’s second silver medal of these Games; last week he became the first North American to win a medal in the nordic combined individual normal hill.
Austria’s Bernhard Gruber will take home bronze after starting the cross-country portion first because of a 134.0-meter jump.