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1964 Innsbruck, Austria

Canada also continued its Olympic winning streak in figure skating. Pairs figure skaters Debbi Wilkes and Guy Revell also won bronze behind the legendary team of Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov, who won gold for the Soviet Union, and Germany's Marika Kilius and Hans-Jurgen Baumier. Following the Games, it came to light that the German pair had signed contracts and performed as professionals before the Olympics. Accordingly, they were stripped of their medals, and Wilkes and Revell moved up in the standings and received silver medals.

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1968 Grenoble, France

Canada won three medals in Grenoble. Two of those came courtesy of skier Nancy Greene. The Rossland, B.C. native was a medal threat in all three alpine disciplines (downhill, slalom and giant slalom) in the months leading up to the 1968 Olympics. Greene held the 1967 overall World Cup title. However, the world champion suffered a major setback just one month before the Games. She pulled the ligaments in her right ankle during a training crash. But the sore ankle didn't hold her back.

After a 10th-place finish in the downhill, Greene rebounded by winning silver in slalom, her least favourite event. She capped off an Olympics to remember by attacking the Chamrousse course to claim gold in the giant slalom. Greene obliterated the field by over 2.5 seconds. Her determination and competitive spirit earned Greene the nickname "Tiger."

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1972 Sappora Japan

Figure skater Karen Magnussen of Vancouver, B.C. stepped onto the ice in Sapporo just three years after suffering hairline fractures in both her legs - an injury that forced her to watch the 1969 Canadian championships from a wheelchair.

Technical specialist Beatrix Schuba of Austria built such an insurmountable lead after her six compulsory figures that she managed to capture Olympic gold even with a seventh place finish in the free skate. But with second place still up for grabs, Magnussen skated a flawless program to win the silver.

Magnussen's medal was Canada's only podium result of the Games, making the Sapporo Games the country's poorest medal showing at a Winter Olympics since 1928 in St. Moritz.

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1976 Innsbruck Austria

Not too many people gave Kathy Kreiner a chance to win the Olympic giant slalom. She was in the midst of a poor World Cup season, and Mittermaier appeared poised to claim her third victory of the Games. The race was run in cloudy conditions with light snowfalls, and the course was made even more challenging when mild temperatures produced icy patches.

Kreiner shocked the field by completing a near-perfect run and racing to a temporary lead with Mittermaier yet to ski. The German champ burst out of the starting gate, building a half-second lead over the surprising Canadian. But a gate error caused the German star to lose time, and she crossed the finish line in second place. Kreiner's win was so unexpected that just one Canadian reporter was on hand for the event.

Canada also surprised in speed skating. Calgary's Cathy Priestner brought home Canada's lone silver of the Games by placing second in the 500-metre speed skating event. Priestner trailed only Sheila Young of the United States.

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1988 Calgary

As in Montreal 12 years earlier, Canada was kept off the top step of the medal podium. Canada's best two medal performances came from figure skaters Brian Orser and Elizabeth Manley, who each captured silver.

Unlike Orser, Manley was a long-shot whose performance was one of the biggest surprises of the games. The women's final was supposed to be "The Battle of Carmens," a reflection of the similar musical choices of Katarina Witt of East Germany and Debbi Thomas of the United States.

 

But Manley's performance of a lifetime during the long program vaulted her past Thomas, and just a hair short of Witt and the gold medal. Ice dancers Rob McCall and Tracy Wilson captured a bronze medal, as figure skaters collected three of the five medals won by Canada during the Games.

Percy survives tough conditions

The weather in Calgary took a decidedly balmy turn from the outset of the games. A "chinook, " the notoriously warm wind that can jack up Calgary's temperature by 10 degrees C in an afternoon, swept east from the Rockies, melting the snow on Mount Allan and turning spectators into sunbathers.

The soft snow contributed to a number of upsets in the Alpine events. But Percy, skiing with a broken left thumb, proved to be remarkably consistent, winning bronze medals in the downhill and Super G events. She almost captured a third medal in the Combined event, but lost control of her left ski pole and finished fourth.

The final medal tally may have been disappointing, but Canadians could take solace in the fact that their athletes won gold medals in freestyle skiing, curling and short-track speed skating. They were only demonstration events, and thus not counted in the medal tally, but the results provided a glimpse of things to come, for in future Games, those sports would be officially recognized and help pad Canada's medal count

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1992 Albertiville France
For Canadians, Albertville proved to be more frutitful than Calgary when it came to medals. The team captured seven in all -- two gold, three silver, two bronze -- making the 1992 Games the most successful for Canada in 60 years.

Canada’s first medal, a bronze, was captured by pairs skating duo Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler.

 

Kerrin Lee-Gartner became a Canadian hero when she turned the best performance of her career into Canada’s first Olympic gold in the downhill ski event. She caused an even bigger, global stir when she later confessed that her pre-race warm-up included a quick “cuddle” with her husband.

The inclusion of short-track speed skating as an official medal event paid dividends for Canada, contributing three medals to the final tally. The women’s 3,000-metre relay team took the gold .

Myriam Bedard became the first North American to win a medal in biathlon when she took the bronze medal in the 15km event. Two years later she would become an even bigger hero with a double gold performance in Lillehammer.

Canadians also took home three medals in demonstration sports of curling and freestyle aerials. Both would eventually become official events and help bump up Canada’s medal total in later Olympics.

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1994 Llehammer, Norway
The Lillehammer Games were Canada’s most successful ever, thanks in large part to the recent inclusion of freestyle skiing and short-track speed skating as official sports. In fact, the two events, dominated in Canada by Quebecers, accounted for six of Canada’s lucky 13 medals.

Out on the short track, Nathalie Lambert took the silver medal in the women’s 1,000-metre event. The women’s 3,000m relay team added another silver.

On the traditional speed skating oval, Susan Auch won the first of two straight Olypmic silver medals in the 500m, finishing behind legendary American Bonnie Blair, who retired after the Lillehammer Games with five gold medals. It was Auch's misfortune to be skating at the same time as two of the greatest 500m skaters of all time: Blair and, four years later, Canadian teammate Catriona Le May Doan.

Canadian Myriam Bedard was not only the greatest Canadian biathlete ever, she was the first biathlete to win two gold medals at one Games.

Biathlete Myriam Bedard, who was surprise bronze medal winner two years earlier in Albertville, dominated her event in Lillehammer, taking home gold in 7.5-kilometre and 15km events.

Pairs skaters Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler followed up their bronze medal performance in Albertville with another third-place finish in Lillehammer.

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1998 Nagano, Japan
In curling’s debut, Canada’s women’s rink, skipped by the late Sandra Schmirler, captured the gold medal while Mike Harris’ rink settled for silver after being upset by Switzerland in the final.

Catriona LeMay Doan won a pair of medals on the speed skating oval, a gold in the 500-metre event and a bronze in the 1000m. In recognition of her efforts, she carried the flag in the Games’ closing ceremonies.

Susan Auch took second in the 500m behind Le May Doan, a repeat of her result in Lillehammer four years earlier.

The recent addition of short-track speed skating in Lillehammer continued to pay dividends for Canada. Annie Perrault captured the gold medal in the 500m event. The women’s 3000m relay team won bronze.

There was more disappointment for Canada in the inaugural women’s hockey tournament. Everybody knew that the gold medal final would be a face-off between Canada and the U.S.-- the two teams were light years ahead of the rest of the world.

Leading up to the tournament Canada had beaten the U.S. in all the big competitions, including all four World Championships. In the final round robin game Canada led the U.S. 4-1 in the third period. But the American women exploded for six goals in 13 minutes to win 7-4.

The Canadian women’s collapse was showed that the U.S. could no longer be counted to be the one to roll over in big games. As expected the two teams met in the final. The U.S. carried a 2-0 lead with four minutes left when Danielle Goyette pulled Canada to within one. That was as close as Canada got as the U.S. added an empty-netter to win the first women’s hockey gold 3-1.