Canada has only one medal in the traditional Olympic Sports, but many in the newly introduced X-Sports. Is this a long term concern? What happens when other nations commit to the X-Sports the way Canada has? Why isn't Canada competitive in the mainstream events? The depth of talent pool in the X-Sports is not as deep so far.
The X-Factor of Canadian success
Field of Play blog: Canada owning the podium, but timing has helped
http://olympics.cbc.ca/blogs/author/...n-success.html
On the surface this looks like Canadian athletes are in for a bonanza in the south of Russia, given that there are still a dozen days of competition to unfold.
Still, all of the medals that Canada has scored to date have come from sports which have come onto the Olympic program since the Albertville Games in 1992.
Conversely, the long standing sports such as alpine and cross-country skiing as well as long track speed skating have seen Canadians struggle in the early days. These are events which afford the bulk of medal opportunities at any Olympics because there are races of multiple distances involving myriad disciplines of the same sport.
But cause for concern is the drought in alpine skiing, which has seen Canadian athletes fail to win a medal since the Lillehammer Games of 1994 when Ed Podivinsky claimed downhill bronze. The chances to erase that dry spell are rapidly disappearing in Sochi.
Long track speed skating has produced 33 medals in Canadian Olympic history, more than any other sport at the Winter Games. But there is the daunting prospect here that Canadian athletes could be shut out.
That worries Gaetan Boucher, who won three Olympic medals including two golden trips to the podium at Sarajevo in 1984, while inspiring a generation of speed skating greatness in Canada.