First gold for Canada

UPDATE: Canada now has one of each medal so far in the 2006 Winter Olympics. Silver medals went to Sara Renner and Beckie Scott in Women's Team Sprint in Cross Country skiing. Speed Skating Cindy Klassen won the Bronze in the Women's 3,000 m Speed Skating.



Congratulations to Jennifer Heil for winning a gold medal in Women's Moguls in Freestyle Skiing. This is Canada's first medal (and obviously, first gold) in the 2006 Winter Olympics.

Heil scored 26.5 points to beat 2002 gold medalist Kari Traa of Norway (25.65) and Sandra Laoura of France (25.37). This was vindication for Heil, 22, since she missed a medal by 1/100th of a second in Salt Lake City in 2002.

The major mishap happened after she won when the PA announcer made a mistake and said "The gold medalist ... from the United States of America...." Canadians get sensitive to mistakes like that because they seem to happen quite often. Such as flying the Canadian flag upside down in the 1992 World Series.

Heil becomes the first Canadian woman ever to medal in this Olympic event, and the first Canadian to strike gold in moguls since Jean-Luc Brassard in 1994 in Lillehammer.

Note: A few people have asked me why CBC's coverage is so much better than what you get in the U.S. Praising coverage can be subjective, but I can explain why many prefer CBC's coverage.

They carry events as they happen instead of worrying about tape-delayed coverage. Especially in this era when you can tape an event at 4 a.m., and watch it with your breakfast cereal at 7 a.m. instead of waiting until 8 p.m.

They also focus more on the actual events and less on the "human interest" stories that U.S. coverage tends to love.

Plus, for many Americans who live near the Canadian border, it's a free option to get a different perspective they otherwise wouldn't have.