Winners & Losers from Vancouver 2010

[LuigiVercotti]

Winner: Canadian winter sports; 14 gold medals is a huge effort, deserving immense pride from the home town supporters.

Loser: Finland; no gold and way behind other Nordic/Scandinavian rivals

[lehari]

I would add also Italy as a loser. Only 5 medals (1G,1S,3B) is a miserable result compared to the 11 medals of Torino or 20 of Lillehammer.

[Rei]

^^

We could say.. Italy and Finland united in failure.

Razzo's gold was a beautiful surprise, though.

[lehari]

^^

We could say.. Italy and Finland united in failure.

Razzo's gold was a beautiful surprise, though.

I totally agree.

Razzo was a ray of light in the darkness.

[demetrius]

Winner: Canada

14 gold medals, the victory in ice hockey...

And Italy...It is really surprising, it is not the usual rank of Italy.

What are the reactions in Italy?

[Stu]

Loser - Russia. Even though they won 3 gold medals, Russia is supposed to be one of the very strongest winter sports nations - as the next Winter Games hosts one would have thought they'd be particularly motivated in Vancouver.

Winner - Canada. More golds in one Games than any other country - the BBC are asking whether it was the best Winter Games ever.

[Mainad]

Agree with Stu.

Big Winner:Canada.14 Gold Medals,the most ever won in a Winter Olympics,says it all!

Big Loser:Russia.This was a nation that dominated the Winter Medals Table for decades and yet only managed to finish 11th in Vancouver in the last Winter Olympics it will participate in just 4 years before hosting its own! Big Sour Loser too as Medvedev and Putin both spat out their dummies,stamped their feet in pique and refused to attend the closing ceremonies which included the handing over of the Olympic Flag to their own nation for the next Games.Just hope they manage to imbibe a little more of the Olympic spirit by the time Sochi comes around!

Edited March 1, 2010 by Mainad

[Rei]

And Italy...It is really surprising, it is not the usual rank of Italy.

What are the reactions in Italy?

Most (Coni included) call it "the end of a cycle" and certainly it was.

Since the high peaks of the 90's, the descent was kinda expected. Maybe not of these proportions but predictable.

Anyway, this doesn't justify the big fall. Coni seemed to have approched these Games too softly.

Looking at the general placing (included 5 forth places), their slogan seemed to be "Leave the podium".

[4gamesandcounting]

Winner: An odd one but - Russia. Yes they had an awful games - but this could be the kick they needed so they really perform at Sochi. Can you imagine if they had an "okay" games in Canada and then this performance on home soil?! So this could be a win in the long term for them.

Loser: The Olympic Cauldron security fence designer.

[Rob2012]

Agree with Stu.

Big Winner:Canada.14 Gold Medals,the most ever won in a Winter Olympics,says it all!

Big Loser:Russia.This was a nation that dominated the Winter Medals Table for decades and yet only managed to finish 11th in Vancouver in the last Winter Olympics it will participate in just 4 years before hosting its own! Big Sour Loser too as Medvedev and Putin both spat out their dummies,stamped their feet in pique and refused to attend the closing ceremonies which included the handing over of the Olympic Flag to their own nation for the next Games.Just hope they manage to imbibe a little more of the Olympic spirit by the time Sochi comes around!

Russian Olympic officials should resign - Medvedev

President Dmitry Medvedev has called on Russian Olympic officials to resign, following the nation's worst ever performance in the winter games.

Those in charge of preparing Russian athletes for the Vancouver games "should take the brave decision and submit their resignations," he said.

"If they cannot do it, we will help them," Mr Medvedev added [as he stroked his white cat].

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8543560.stm

[Mainad]

Russian Olympic officials should resign - Medvedev

"If they cannot do it, we will help them," Mr Medvedev added [as he stroked his white cat].

Quick....send for James Bond! Ernst Stavros Blofeld is BACK and he's running Russia!!!

Edited March 1, 2010 by Mainad

[mr.x]

Losers: the world

Winners: Canada

[Rob2012]

Very Olympic of you X.

[LuigiVercotti]

Winner: South Korea's NOC...their team brought in medals over more disciplines than at previous games.

Loser: The sliding sports...death, withdrawals and numerous accidents marred the luge and bobsled particularly

[Querque]

Razzo's gold was a beautiful surprise, though.

Haha Razzoli wasn't a surprise for me. Before the race I said, Razzoli will win and everybody laughed at me... in the end I laughed!^^

But to be honest I only predicted that because Thomas Sykora, former Austrian slalom star and now expert for the Austrian television, already said that Razzoli is one of the topfavourites when he won the Zagreb slalom this year.

Well winner:

1. Canada

2. Ice Hockey Tournament

3. Petra Majdic

Loser:

1. Nodar Kumaritashvili

2. Russia

3. the sun (at the beginning and in the end it lost against the midmountain fog )

[The Moose]

Winner:

• Russia, I hope. Hopefully this is the start of a new dope free future! I see a lot of potential in young Russian athletes
  
• Sweden: Finally back. I've missed them, Not fun to beat our arch-rival when they have none among the 20 best..
  

Loser

• Finland: The cross country skiing scandal in 2001, where almost the entire team was caught broke the back. They lost all my respect after Virpi Keutonen was allowed back into the warmth. Now they also failed in ski-jump and Nordic combined. This is a much larger fall than Italia. Good Finns have always be around before.....