Repeating as Olympic champ proves to be no easy task for Canadians at Beijing Games
Only 3 Canadian athletes have ever repeated as Olympic gold medallists
There's an adage that says its difficult to get to the top, but even harder to stay there.
That might be particularly so for Olympic champions.
The four years between Games provides lots of time for things to happen, and lots of new competition to come along. Add in the simple fact of aging and it's no easy task to win a gold medal twice.
There were seven Canadians who came into Beijing holding gold in individual events from Pyeongchang four years ago. So far, moguls skier Mikaël Kingsbury and freestyle skier Cassie Sharpe have come the closest to defending their Olympic championships.
Kingsbury won silver on the first day of competition, while Sharpe narrowly fell to China's Eileen Gu on Thursday to also claim silver in the women's halfpipe.
In its Olympic history, Canada has just three athletes who have repeated as Olympic champions in individual events: speed skater Catriona Le May Doan (500m in 1998 and 2002); moguls skier Alex Bilodeau (2010 and 2014); and trampolinist Rosie MacLennan (2012 and 2016).
Le May Doan, Canada's chef de mission at these Games, acknowledged just how difficult a task it is to repeat.
"Going into Salt Lake City, all I kept hearing was no individual Canadian has ever defended a gold medal. Summer, winter, male, female. You start to wonder if it could even happen," she said. "There's pressure [but] the ultimate pressure is the pressure you put on yourself. My family had never put pressure on me. You feel pressure from your country, sport — you feel pressure from everyone even if they're not putting it on you because you want to do it.
"It was difficult emotionally, it was difficult physically, mentally. What I did was much more difficult than I realized."
Potential repeats remaining
For Canada, only one athlete remains as a potential repeat champion: Brady Leman in the men's ski cross.
The men's ski cross gets going on Thursday at 10:45 p.m. ET.
All competitions will be streamed live on CBC Gem, the CBC Sports app and CBC Sports' Beijing 2022 website.
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'We should be proud of that'
Le May Doan said an added challenge to repeating at these Olympics has been the difficulty in preparation because of restrictions caused by the pandemic, particularly in Canada where federal and provincial governments exacted strict lockdown procedures for long periods.
"It's for sure different and they've had to adjust. I would say Canada was at a bit of a disadvantage, but we've proven with the results over the last number of months, whether the competitions were in those bubbles (in Europe) or whether they were actually starting back — we've proven that we've adapted," Le May Doan said. "The athletes are impressive.
"They've come through a lot. Everyone's come through a lot but these guys have continued to have the Games in focus. More than ever, the last two years, they're inspiring — just by what they've been able to do to represent our nation, to represent each one of us. Us being here is probably a lot tougher than for a lot of the other countries and we should be very proud of that."
