Canada Wins Women's Hockey Gold

Canada Hockey Team to be a winner in the Women's Hockey World Cup Competition this year. The Women's Hockey World Cup is the field hockey World Cup competition for women, whose format for qualification and final tournament is similar to the men's. It has been held since 1974.

The tournament has been organised by the International Hockey Federation (IHF) since they took over the role from the International Federation of Women's Hockey Associations (IFWHA) in 1983. Since 1986, it has been held regularly once every four years, in the same year as the men's competition.

Canada beat the U.S. 2-0 to win the women’s hockey title at the Vancouver Winter Olympics and tie Germany and the U.S. for the most gold medals at the Games.

It’s the third straight Olympic title for the Canadian women, following their victories in Turin four years ago and in Salt Lake City in 2002. Canada outscored its opponents 48-2 in its five wins in Vancouver.

Canada’s hockey win came after the U.S. and Germany each claimed gold medals earlier today.

Bill Demong became the first American to win an Olympic gold medal in Nordic combined, and Viktoria Rebensburg became the first German in 54 years to win the women’s giant slalom.

Norway trails Germany, Canada and the U.S. by one gold medal after winning its seventh today in the women’s 20- kilometer cross-country skiing relay.

The U.S. sits atop the standings with 31 total medals, five more than Germany. Norway has 19, followed by Canada with 15.

Marie-Philip Poulin scored two first-period goals to lead Canada to its fourth women’s hockey title.

The U.S., which beat Canada for the gold medal in the 1998 Nagano Games, took the silver. Finland took the bronze by beating Sweden 3-2 in overtime earlier today.

Historic Gold

Demong finished the Nordic combined event, which combines ski jumping off the larger of two hills and a 10- kilometer cross-country ski race, in a time of 25 minutes, 32.9 seconds.

Johnny Spillane of the U.S. was the silver medalist, finishing four seconds behind. Austria’s Bernhard Gruber took the bronze after he was unable to keep up with the Americans in the final 500 meters.

Spillane was the first American to win any medal in Nordic combined when he took a silver medal in the normal hill competition 11 days ago. The U.S. also won a silver medal in the team 20-kilometer relay on Feb. 23.

“It has been building over the past five to 10 years,” Demong, 29, told reporters. “We knew we had three guys who could medal on any given day. What started it off was Johnny’s silver.”

The women’s figure skating competition concludes tonight with the free-skate program.

Kim Yu-na of South Korea leads after posting a world- record score in the short program, while Japan’s Mao Asada is second. Canada’s Joannie Rochette, whose mother died on Feb. 21 following a heart attack, is third.

Canadian Curling Wins

A gold medal also will be awarded today in men’s freestyle skiing aerials.

Canada had its men’s and women’s curling teams advance to the gold-medal matches with semifinal wins today. The Canadian men remained unbeaten with a 6-3 win over Sweden and will face Norway on Feb. 27, while the Canadian women beat Switzerland 6-5 to advance to tomorrow’s gold-medal match against Sweden.

Rebensburg, who never had a victory in a major event, is the first German woman to win the Olympic giant slalom since Ossi Reichert in 1956. Rebensburg finished in a combined time of 2 minutes, 27.11 seconds at the Alpine skiing venue in Whistler, British Columbia.

Second Run Delayed

Tina Maze of Slovenia took the silver medal and Austrian Elisabeth Goergl, who led after yesterday’s first run, was the bronze medalist. The second run was pushed back to today because of foggy conditions.

The Canadian men’s hockey team, which yesterday sent Russia to its second-worst loss in Olympic history, plays Slovakia tomorrow for a spot in the gold-medal game. The U.S. faces Finland in the other semifinal.