Short-track speed-skater Charles Hamelin made Canadian Olympic history on Wednesday after helping to win gold in men’s 5,000-metre relay.
Hamelin has now won six Olympic medals – four of them gold – placing him alongside Cindy Klassen as the most decorated winter Canadian Olympian.
The gold win was the highlight of Canada’s performance on day 12 of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Here’s what happened on the day that started Tuesday night and continued Wednesday morning.
Speed Skating
Hamelin, Steven Dubois, Jordan Pierre-Gilles and Pascal Dion took home the top prize in men’s 5,000-metre relay after skating six minutes 41.25 seconds in the five-team final.
The event was the last Olympic competition for 37-year-old Hamelin, who is a five-time Olympian with six Olympic medals.
Teammate Dubois won his third medal of the Beijing Games after securing silver in men’s 1,500 metres, and bronze in 500 metres.
He becomes the second Canadian Olympian to complete the medal set in Beijing. Long-track speed-skater Isabelle Weidemann won a gold, silver and bronze on the Ice Ribbon oval.
Meanwhile in women’s 1,500-metres, three Canadian athletes were in competition to make it to the finals.
In the quarterfinals, Danae Blais, Courtney Sarault and Kim Boutin skated; Blais crashed out in her quarterfinal run and did not advance, while Boutin and Sarault did not clock in a time quick enough in the semifinals to advance to the medal round.
Boutin was chasing her second Olympic medal of the Games, and the fifth of her career. Boutin won bronze in the women’s 500-metre event earlier in the Games.
Hockey
On the ice, Canada dominated in speed-skating but the same can’t be said for the men’s hockey team.
For the first time since 2006, they won’t compete for a medal after losing to Sweden 2-0 in the quarterfinals.
The tight contest was goalless until the 10-minute mark in the third period when Swedish forward Lucas Wallmark capitalized on a turnover in the Canadian zone to put the Swedes up 1-0.
Canada tried to battle back, but went down 2-0 when Anton Lander scored on an open net with three minutes left in the game.
Another North American hockey powerhouse, the United States, was eliminated by Slovakia in a tight game that ended in a shootout.
Cross-Country Skiing
Canada’s Antoine Cyr and Graham Ritchie had a strong race in their heat in the men’s team sprint classic semifinals, finishing fourth for a spot in the final.
Cyr and Ritchie continued to ski well in the final, but were no match for Norway, Finland and the Russian Olympic Committee, which won gold, silver and bronze, respectively. The Canadian duo finished fifth.
In the women’s team sprint classic, Canadians Katherine Stewart-Jones and Dahria Beatty finished sixth in their semifinal heat and were not fast enough to advance to the finals.
Freestyle Skiing
Canada’s Max Moffatt had fun on the freeski slopestyle course at Genting Snow Park, and improved through each of his three runs with a best score of 70.4 in the third.
But that was only good enough for ninth place overall in the final rankings, missing out on a medal.
Alpine Skiing
Erik Read finished 24th overall in the men’s slalom final with a combined time of 1:49.10 across two runs — five seconds behind French skier Clement Noel’s gold medal-winning time.
Fellow Canadian Trevor Philp skied out on his first run and was eliminated from the competition.
Curling
Team Canada narrowly topped the United States 7-6 in women’s round-robin play in their first game of the day, but lost their second against China, which won 11-9.
The squad now holds a 4-4 record, and they will have one more round-robin game against Denmark before learning if they advance to the semifinals later this week.
Biathlon
Megan Bankes, Sarah Beaudry, Emily Dickson and Emma Lunder finished 10th overall in the woman’s 4×6-kilometre relay final, crossing the finish line four minutes and 30 seconds behind gold medal winners Sweden.
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