Canada gets first Olympic gold
Published:Monday | February 15, 2010 | 1:46 PM
Canada\'s long wait for a first Olympic gold medal on home soil is over after Alexandre Bilodeau won the men\'s moguls event on today’s fourth day of action at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
The 22-year-old Bilodeau finished ahead of Australia\'s reigning champion Dale Begg-Smith and American Bryon Wilson.
It ended a 34-year wait and sparked wild celebrations at Cypress Mountain.
Canada had never won an Olympic gold medal in their homeland, failing to capture any at the 1976 Montreal Summer Games or the 1988 Calgary Winter Games.
A day after his moguls team-mate Jennifer Heil failed to live up to expectations and win Canada\'s first gold medal, Bilodeau stepped up and flew down the course in a speedy, near flawless run.
After qualifying with the second best time, Bilodeau was the penultimate skier.
He then blazed through the slushy moguls, tore down the course in 23.17 seconds and posted a score that was 0.17 points better than Canadian-born Begg-Smith, who won gold for Australia in Turin four years ago.
When the final skier, Guilbaut Colas of France, had his sixth-place score flashed on the board, the Canadian crowd went wild.