WINDSOR, England — It is shorter than a modern paddle, and it is made of actual wood, not some synthetic material. Mark Oldershaw said if he took one stroke, it might break. Yet he brought it from Burlington, Ont., back to where it all began.

Mark Oldershaw kisses his bronze medal. (The Canadian Press)Bert Oldershaw represented Canada at the London Olympics – in 1948. He finished fifth in the canoe double 1,000 metres and had his competitors sign his paddle as a souvenir. He went to two more Summer Games (1952, '56), then had three sons go to their own Olympics: Dean ('72, '76), Reed ('72, '76) and Scott ('84).

Finally, he passed the paddle to his grandson. He gave it to Mark in 2001, after he won two gold medals at the junior world championships. Mark displayed it on the wall in his bedroom – a memorial after Grandpa Bert died in 2006, an inspiration as he went to Beijing in '08 – and he made sure he had it in his hotel room here.

"For luck," he said.

Mark came back to grab bronze in the men's canoe single 1,000 metres Wednesday. Five

WINDSOR, England — This wasn't just the final of the men's kayak single 1,000 metres Wednesday morning. This was a tiebreaker between two old friends: Canada's Adam van Koeverden and Norway's Eirik Veras Larsen. Each had a set of Olympic medals – gold, silver, bronze – and both wanted the better medal here.

Van Koeverden was the heavy favourite. He was the reigning world champion, and had blown away the competition in his heat and semifinal. You might have said he was Canada's last best hope for gold at the London Games.

But he knew better than to be so presumptuous. He had slept on Larsen's couch. He had eaten dinner at his house. He had trained with him for 14 years – maybe 1,000 workouts, across the globe – and he figured they split the victories in their sessions about 50-50.

"Sometimes you have to flip a coin," van Koeverden said, "and if it comes up the wrong side for you, then you've got to deal with that."

Van Koeverden insisted he could deal with this. Larsen caught him in the

Rosie MacLennan's photo hanging in Canada Olympic House.LONDON -- At the last Olympics, Rosie MacLennan was a volunteer. She used frequent flier miles to travel from Toronto. She slept on an air mattress in the living room of her brother Matt's Vancouver home. She spent the 2010 Winter Games working at Canada House, the home away from home for Canadian athletes and their families, restocking food, running errands, whatever.

One of her duties: going to the printer to pick up photos of medal winners, so they could be framed and put on the wall.

"It was perfect," she said. "It was an amazing experience."

Perfect? Amazing?

At this Olympics, Rosie MacLennan is a gold medallist. She won the women's trampoline competition Saturday in London, giving her country its first victory of the 2012 Summer Games. She was whisked to Canada House, where former Vancouver co-workers brought her food, where the prime minister called for her, where the other athletes and their families sang "O Canada" and chanted "GOLD-EN GIRL!" in her honour. Someone had to go

LONDON -- For four years, Ryan Cochrane beat himself up about Beijing. Bronze wasn't good enough in the men's 1,500-metre freestyle, even though he wasn't supposed to make the podium back then and that was Canada's only swimming medal at those Olympics. He felt he could have raced better. He felt he could have done more.

Now here was Cochrane in London, smiling with silver around his neck, finally satisfied.

Ryan Cochrane celebrates with his silver medal. (Reuters)"This is the happiest I've been after I think any race in my career," Cochrane said Saturday evening. "I was just so thankful to know that there was nothing else I could have done. The surprising swims are usually the best, but this wasn’t surprising at all. This was what I've worked towards, and it's definitely the best feeling I've had."

Cochrane set a Canadian record in the 1,500 free with a time of 14:39.63. He set the previous record in a Beijing heat, but that was while wearing one of the high-tech, high-speed suits that are now outlawed. So he got even faster even as the

(Getty Images)WINDSOR, England – Sitting on the starting line Thursday, Caryn Davies thought back three years, back to when she was wondering whether she would row for the United States in another Olympics after winning silver in women's eight in Athens in 2004 and gold in Beijing in '08.

She remembered what coxswain Mary Whipple had told her: "I want to feel what it's like to sit on that start line and have that excitement running through me. I want to look you in the eye and know we can have a great race."

Now here was Davies at another Olympics, and it was everything it was supposed to be. She was outside London on Lake Dorney at the Eton College Rowing Centre, one of the finest venues in the sport. The stands were filled with thousands of real fans, not just people gawking at a big event. The Americans were heavy favorites.

Gold lay only two kilometers away.

"There's just no feeling like that," Davies said, "having all that adrenaline running through you, knowing you can have a great

LONDON — One last push. Clara Hughes rounded the corner and passed a building with a huge Canadian flag flapping on the front. She gritted her teeth so hard, she seemed to smile. She lowered her head and pumped her legs, burning whatever fuel she had left.

Canada's Clara Hughes competes in her final Olympic event. (Reuters) One hundred more metres of suffering. As the fans leaned over, cheered and pounded on the barriers down the final straightaway, she looked up and opened her mouth wide, gasping for air. Her bike wobbled. She lowered her head again. She crossed the finish line.

And that was it.

Her incomparable Olympic career was over. She coasted on her bike with a grin.

Hughes was disappointed to finish fifth in the women's cycling time trial Wednesday, covering the 29-kilometre course in 38:28.96, about half a minute from a medal. She had not come back to this sport – and raced and trained for six weeks with a fractured vertebrae, an injury she kept quiet – just to wear the Maple Leaf one more time. She wanted to wear it on the podium, and

LONDON – Was it better than Beijing? Why bother to compare? From the moment the Chinese staged their spectacular show four years ago, people wondered whether anyone would ever top it. But they do not award medals for Opening Ceremonies. Every nation is unique. Every ceremony is unique. Everyone will have an opinion, colored by perspective, patriotism or cynicism.

Whatever you thought of director Danny Boyle’s effort to open the 2012 London Games – odd, awesome, undignified, funny, underwhelming, or overwhelming – it was yet anoth(AP)er marvel of Olympic production. The stadium floor went from pastoral to industrial, from a hard rock concert to a soft dance performance and back again. Boyle crammed in hundreds of years of British history, high culture and pop culture, from sheep to Shakespeare to the Sex Pistols, and he did it in front of Queen Elizabeth II, who was decidedly unstuffy. She even joined in the fun herself before later declaring the Games open.

It was impossible to process

LONDON – The Olympics have gone from Winter to Summer, from Vancouver to London. This is no longer Canada’s home soil. This is no longer Canada’s specialty. And so we’re about to find out whether all that effort, all that patriotism and all that money can really make a lasting difference.

"This is a particularly special day for the Canadian Olympic team,'' COC president Marcel Aubut said Friday, a few hours before the Opening Ceremony. "It is the day we truly begin testing the mettle of the teamwork that has grown out of Vancouver’s momentum the past two years. For two years, we have waited for this moment.''

The Canadians won 14 gold medals in Vancouver, more than any other nation. They finished third in the overall medal count. Then they set their goal for London: top 12 in 2012.

Canadian Olympic Committee president Marcel Aubut has high hopes in London. (Reuters)Canadian Olympic Committee president Marcel Aubut has high hopes in London. (Reuters)It has a nice ring to it – too nice of a ring to it, as if it were an advertising slogan instead of a mission statement.

It might be overly ambitious. Canada has won exactly three gold medals in five of the