Sporting world's eyes turn to Canada
Winter Olympics 
/ Andy Morris / 08 October 2009 / Leave a comment Bet Now
A projected 5,500 athletes will converge on Vancouver-Whistler for the 2010 Winter Olympics, all full of dreams of winning gold, writes Andy Morris.
There will be 86 golds up for grabs, and by the time the closing ceremony is held on February 28 some will have made their mark on history.
As ever, particularly in hockey-mad Canada, ice hockey will be one of the blue ribband events and traders will be on the lookout for sure things in the men's and women's competitions that last from February 13-28.
Canada will be hard to beat in women's ice hockey, particularly with the large and vocal support at GM Place.
Home advantage doesn't always count - memorably Italy lost 16-0 to Canada on the opening day of the last Olympics in Turin in 2006, the most lop-sided result in Olympic history - but the Canadian team has consistently proved itself as the strongest in the world (they have not lost to anyone other than the USA) and have been preparing for the Games for at least two years.
It is three years since Evgeni Plushenko won the last of his major championships, but he could provide one of the comeback stories of the Winter Olympics. A silver medallist in Salt Lake City in 2002, he won gold in Turin four years later and has three world titles to his name. After a two-year hiatus in his career, he is back in serious training ahead of his trip to Vancouver-Whistler, and it would not pay to write off his chances.
Another athlete attempting to bounce back with a win after time out from the sport will be Estonian cross-country skier Kristina Smigun-Vahi. She won both the 10km classical and 7.5km + 7.5km double golds in Turin but took a break to have her daughter Victoria-Kris in 2008.
Austria's Michaela Dorfmeister will not be back to defend her downhill or Super-G titles in Vancouver-Whistler, but there is a strong possibility that her feat of winning both events will be matched.
America's Lindsey Vonn won the 2009 Alpine Skiing World Cup overall title by a massive 384 points, after dominating both the downhill - where she beat Andrea Fischbacher by some 176 points - and Super-G competitions.
Among the men, it would be wise to watch out for 2009 overall winner Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway, who won the Super-G competition and finished fourth in downhill behind Austria's Michael Walchhofer.
The Swiss should be in the medals in the combined event, with Carlo Janka and Silvan Zurbriggen having finished one-two in last year's World Cup, while France's Jean-Baptiste Grange and Julien Lizerous finished first and third in last year's slalom competition so should be in the running again. Grange was only four points behind Croatia's fourth-placed Ivica Kostelic in the overall standings.
The host country will be hoping for a repeat of their success in the men's curling of 2006, where they won their first Olympic gold, but Finland aim to gain revenge for their defeat in the last final.
