Hoser Heroes: Canada's best on Day 6
Each night, Fourth-Place Medal will pick a gold, silver and bronze from among Canada's competitors.
Canuck gold: Marianne St-Gelais (silver, women's 500-meter short-track speedskating). The birthday girl won her first Olympic medal, and Canada's sixth overall, in a race where everyone was racing for silver because of China's wunderkind, Meng Wang.
St-Gelais, racing on her 20th b-day, ended up climbing an Olympic podium at these Games before her better-known boyfriend, Canadian men's short-track skater Charles Hamelin. That's the cute part. The serious part is that she still competed as a junior last year, so talk about tremendous upside.
Didn't know that Hamelin and St-Gelais were an item? If all of Canada followed Olympic sports like Quebec does, no one would need the reminder, just kidding but not really.
Canuck silver: Jessica Gregg (fourth in the same event). As elated as St-Gelais was, Gregg was just as heartbroken after bouncing back from a collision early in the night and ultimately finishing jusssst out of the medals. It was tough, as an reporter from her hometown of Edmonton noted:
She lived up to all that promise that has been building since 2007, with four World Cup podium finishes in her best race, including a gold, as well as a bronze at the 2009 worlds. The girl is good. Not as gold, silver or bronze yet, but just wait around awhile.
Because she only seems to get stronger with each race and every challenge. And the final was all of that. Wang burst to the front and behind her there was chaos, Fontana knocking Gregg to the ice and she in turn taking down St-Gelais. There was a restart. Then a false start. Then she got left in the dust at the first corner and never made up enough ground.
Canuck bronze: Britt Janyk (sixth, women's downhill). A redemptive, respectable result for an injury-plagued skier who once had to go out of pocket to support her training after Alpine Canada pulled her funding, as The Globe & Mail noted. It also made up for teammate Emily Brydon's 16th-place finish.
Canada's medal count after Day 6:
Vancouver, 2010: 6 (2-3-1)
Turin, 2006: 4 (1-1-2)
