BC Third At Winter Games

By 250 Sports

Halifax - Team BC ended two weeks of competition at the 2011 Canada Winter Games in Halifax Sunday with one of its best medal counts at a Canada Winter Games. The 88 medals including 28 Gold, 29 Silver and 30 Bronze are 12 more than at the last Winter Games in 2007. That put BC in 3rd place in the medal count, won by Quebec with 137. BC also placed 3rd in the flag point standings, was won by Ontario.

“What a performance by our teams over the last two weeks!” said Team BC Chef de Mission Ajay Patel. “All British Columbians should be proud of Team BC and share in its success.”

“The athletes’ inspiring performances, dedication to winning and commitment to Team BC was spectacular. We finished with one our best medals counts at the Canada Winter Games. British Columbia’s ongoing investment in sport is reflected in our results.”

Team BC had one of its strongest weeks ever at a Canada Games during Week One which culminated in the women’s curling team from Kamloops winning Gold, and the men’s hockey team making history by winning Gold medal at a Canada Games for the first time. Long track and short track speed skating combined to produce their best ever performances, accumulating the most medals ever for Team BC. The female biathlon team finished 2nd in points, a jump from the 6th place finish in 2007.

Other outstanding performances during the week included a Gold medal performance by Team BC’s youngest athlete, 10-year-old artistic gymnast Shannon Olsen of Surrey. The women’s squash team finished in 1st place, improving on their previous 3rd place finish. Freestyle skiers, both men and women, also finished in 1st.
During Week Two BC’s female cross country skiers finished in first place compared to 4th place in 2007. Men’s judo improved its standing to 2nd from 3rd, and in its first appearance at a Canada Games BC’s male snowboarders finished 2nd. BC's table tennis players were the only provincial team at the Games to win a medal in every one of the seven table tennis categories and finished 2nd in the standings.

Quebec accumulated the most medals (137) followed by Ontario with 110 and then BC’s 88. Alberta was 4th with 75. Ontario won the Canada Games flag with 312 points followed by Quebec with 301 and BC with 275. Alberta was 4th with 265. This was one of the tightest flag points races in recent history.

Flag points represent a system of measuring and ranking overall performance by provinces at the Canada Winter Games. All of the athlete results are totalled and each sport is weighted equally. For example, flag points means hockey, with two medals (men’s and women’s) can be compared equivalently to artistic gymnastics that has numerous medals in many disciplines.

Team BC was led into Sunday’s closing ceremonies by cross country triple Gold medalist Alysson Marshall of Enderby, who also earned a Silver medal during competition to help the cross country team to its first place standing. Team BC brought a dedicated team of 242 athletes, 74 coaches, three National Artists and 22 mission staff to the Games in Halifax. Approximately 2,700 athletes, coaches, managers and officials have come to the Games from every province and territory in Canada.

The Canada Games is a national multi-sport Games competition that brings together the best athletes from each Canadian province and territory. The primary objective of the Games and the Games movement is national and provincial sport development of Canadian youth.

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