Canada's Olympic Trivia

The longest domestic Olympic Torch Relay was held in 2010. It covered over 48,000 Km and 12,000 torch bearers took part. It visited more than 1,000 communities across Canada and lasted for 106 days, ending in Vancouver.

Etienne Desmarteau, a Montreal policeman, became the first Canadian to win an Olympic medal. He won Gold for throwing a 56-pound weight in the 1904 Summer Games in St. Louis.

Ray Lewis was the first Canadian-born (Hamilton, ON) black athlete to win an Olympic medal. He waon bronze in the 4x400m relay at the 1932 Los Angeles Olypics.

Canada hosted the Olympic Summer Games in Montreal, Quebec in 1976 and the Olympic Winter Games in Calgary, Alberta in 1988. Vancouver, BC will host the Winter Olympics in 2010.

Canada's best Olympic record performance ever was in the 1984 Summer Olympics at Los Angeles. The Canadians took home a total of 44 Medals - 10 GOLD, 18 SILVER and 16 BRONZE. Another interesting fact is the rather "poor" performance at the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal where Canada, as host nation, failed to win a single GOLD medal, but took 5 SILVER and 6 BRONZE for a total of 11.

Richard (Dick) Pound, a Canadian, was 1st Vice-President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). He lost the race for the IOC Presidency in July 2001. He is now the World Anti-Doping Agency chairman.

Donovan Bailey of Canada continues to hold the 1996 Olympic record he set in the 100m sprint, with a time of 9.84 seconds. He is the fastest Olympian in the world.

(Skip) Sandra Schmirler and her team captured an Olympic Curling Gold medal at the 1998 Nagano Games

Daniel Igali won Gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics to become the first Canadian to win a wrestling Olympic medal.

Catriona Le May Doan is the first Canadian to successfully defend an Olympic Gold medal in an individual sport. She won her second Gold medal in the 500-metre speed skating event at the 2002 Olympics.

Becky Scott won a Gold medal in the 2002 Olympics for the 5k cross-country persuit. It is the first cross-country medal won by a North American in the Olympics. She originally won a Bronze medal but was upgraded to Silver, then to Gold following doping investigations in 2003. She is the only person in Olympic history to be awarded all 3 medals in the same single event.

Clara Hughes won a Bronze medal in the 5k speed-skating event in Salt Lake 2002 to add to the 2 Bronze medals in cycling that she captured in the 1996 Atlanta Games. She becomes 1st Canadian, the 2nd woman, and only the 4th person in Olympic history to capture medals in both Summer and Winter Games.

Dr. Philip Aaron Edwards and Marc Gagnon share the Canadian record of winning 5 Olympic medals each.

The first ever Gymnastic Gold medal for a Canadian was won in artistic floor exercises by Kyle Shewfelt at the 2004 Athens games.

Chantel Petitclerc won a Gold medal in the 800m Wheelchair race. This was a Demonstration event in Athens and did not count in Canada's 2004 medal totals. She also won 4 additional gold medals in the 2004 Paralympic Games and broke 3 world records.

Tonya Verbeek won a Silver medal at the Athens 2004 games and became the first Canadian to win a medal in Woman's wrestling.

Lori-Ann Muenzer won the first ever cycling Gold medal in woman's sprint at the Athens games.

Alexandre Despatie won a Silver medal in Athens and became the first Canadian male to win a diving Olympic medal.

Jennifer Heil became the first Canadian to win a Gold medal in Freestyle Skiing - Women's Moguls at the 2006 Torino Winter games

Duff Gibson, at age 39, is the oldest Winter Olympic gold medallist in an individual event. He won in Skelton in the Torino games.

Ian Miller, at 61 is the oldest Canadian in any Olympics. He has participated in 9 Olympic Games and is a member of the 2008 Silver medal-winning Canadian Equestrian team.

The Canadian Men' Curling Team, skipped by Brad Gushue, won Olympic Curling Gold at the 2006 Turino Winter Games.

Cindy Klassen is the first Canadian athlete to win five medals in a single Olympics and the first with six medals overall. She won her medals in Ladies Speed Skating

Canada's Olympians placed 4th in 13 events and 5th in 9 events in Turino. They won at least one medal in 10 of the 15 sport disciplines competed at the games, and gold medals in 6 different disciplines; both feats were unmatched by any other nation. Canada won a record 24 medals during the Turino Winter Games.