July 19, 1996
CANADA'S GOLDEN ERA NEARS END
ATLANTA '96
By TERRY JONES
Edmonton Sun
ATLANTA -- How will we do?
Sports Illustrated has Canada pencilled in for 17 medals at the Atlanta Games, including seven golds.
I'm picking us for 18, same as our total in Barcelona four years ago. This time, however, instead of seven gold, four silver and seven bronze, I see six, six and six.
Canada's chef de mission Mike Chambers isn't picking.
"I don't believe in putting a shadow over the shoulder of any athlete," he says.
"But I think this team is going to do very well. Across the board, I think it's going to be a very good result."
I'm picking fewer gold for Canada than SI because I can't see the Canadian women's softball team, Curt Harnett in cycling and Tine Moberg-Parker all getting gold.
The softballers are definitely a medal shot. But it looks like the magazine picked Canada over the U.S. to create controversy. The U.S. record in international competition over the last decade is 110-1.
Sorry, it's hard to buy into that one.
Harnett has won silver and bronze. He's in the hunt, but he's 31.
Yachting is like skiing and car racing. There are six or seven who can win but it's a bit of a lottery on the day.
SI has Donovan Bailey down for a bronze in the 100 metres but he's a gold-medal chance. Bruny Surin is in there, too. And several others with a serious shot. The Olympics will stop for this. It's a total toss-up to see who will be the world's fastest man.
The other four in my six come this country's powerhouse rowing team.
There are some interesting scenarios set up for Canada.
Like the one which would make Harnett an Olympian for the ages.
Harnett won a silver in 1984 and a bronze in 1992. If Sports Illustrated's golden projection for him comes true, the Thunder Bay native would own three different medal hues from three different Olympics.
Silken Laumann could earn her third medal from a third Games. She won bronze in 1984 and '92.
It would also make them two of only 10 Canadians who have won three or more medals in the Summer Olympics and only the second and third to have won medals in three separate Olympic Games.
The all-time Canadian summer Olympian was middle-distance runner Phillip Edwards. He won five medals - all bronze. One in 1928, three in '32 and the other in Adolph Hitler's '36 Berlin Olympics.
Rowers Marnie McBean and Kathleen Heddle, who won double gold in Barcelona, are favored for a third in double sculls and projected for a silver in the eights.
No Canadian in either the Winter or Summer Olympics has ever won three gold medals.
Canada has never won gold in yachting, softball or cycling. So there's history to be made there.
It's always fun to pick Canada's first medal at an Olympics. And it guarantees who ever gets it a special spot in our Olympic history.
Who will it be here?
It could be swimmer Joanne Malar. She has a chance tomorrow in the 400-metre individual medley.
It could be Nicolas Gill on Monday. Gill's bronze in judo was Canada's first in Barcelona.
I get the feeling it will be McBean and Heddle a week tomorrow.
If there is one day you want to be sure you're in front of the TV all day, it's that middle Saturday of these Olympics.
McBean and Heddle, Laumann and Derek Porter all go for their gold in rowing.
Tanya Dubnicoff, the former world champion in women's sprint has her event that day.
There's the women's 10-metre final in diving, where Anne Montminy is ranked fourth in world.
And in the evening, there's Donovan Bailey and Bruny Surin in the 100 metres.
