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Canada has long been a Winter Olympics powerhouse and it enters the Milano-Cortina Olympic Games in Italy with a reputation to uphold.
After a 2022 performance that saw a high total medal count but a 30-year low in gold finishes, Team Canada is also looking to put more athletes on the top of the podium.
These charts show how Canada stacks up against its competition.
Norway: The one to beat
In the 2022 Beijing Games, Canada brought home 26 medals, one more than the United States, but short of Norway (37), the Russian athletes (32) and Germany (27).
The total medal count only tells part of the story because Team Canada’s gold medal count was only four, behind 10 other countries.
Not only was Norway the winningest team in 2022 in terms of total medals, but it also took home the most gold. The Nordic country also punched well above its weight when you look at medals won per capita. This is likely the result, at least in part, of the fact that it’s among the world’s richest countries.
Speaking of which, if you take into account a country’s wealth and calculate medals won in relation to GDP, Slovenia is the country that was able to do the most per dollar of GDP.
Over the last few decades, Canada has consistently been in the top five highest medal earners in the Winter Games, although it has never come higher than third place.
Team Canada: More than 200 strong
Canada’s Olympic roster includes more than 200 athletes, second only to Team U.S.A. It’s worth noting that countries that participate in the ice hockey events are going to have inflated athlete counts. Team Canada’s men’s and women’s rosters are 25 players each.
Of the 206 athletes headed to Italy, more than half will be competing at their first Winter Games.
Team Canada’s group of winter athletes has decreased since its 225-person peak in 2018. However, this year is notable because the number of athletes competing in women’s events outnumbers those taking part in the men’s events.
While Team Canada is sending a historic number of female athletes to the Olympics, it’s projected only about 10 per cent of its coaching staff are women.
Hockey: All eyes on Canada
Like most years, Canada is the favoured (though not heavily) to win gold in men’s hockey, but we’re heading into these Games after upsets in 2018 and 2022, years when NHL players didn’t participate. But the big league players are returning to the international stage.
Since 1920, Canada has amassed nine gold medals in men’s hockey and is in a dead heat with Russia. That includes golds won by the Soviet Union as well as a victory in 1992 by the “Unified Team” that consisted of Soviet players who participated in the Games just months after the fall of the Soviet block.
Canada has a chance to break the tie because no athletes are competing under the Russian flag as a consequence of its invasion of Ukraine.
The American team, thirsty for Canadian tears — at least according to an ad starring John Hamm — has two gold medals.
On the women’s side, all eyes are on the U.S. and Canada. Canada has dominated the event since its introduction in 1998, winning all but two golds since. The two teams are widely expected to meet again in Italy in the final.
Predictions for Canada’s performance this year have the country’s medal count at 27, coming again in fourth place, according to statistical models. The opening ceremony is on Friday.