A Canadian gold rush? Hosts determined to improve in '10

As the only country to host both the Winter and Summer Olympics without winning a gold medal, Canada is determined to "Own The Podium" next year in Vancouver.

While they may not be able to push past the Germans and Americans on the overall count, our northern neighbors figure to improve on the two dozen medals they won in Turin. Matching the US in the gold count will be more of a challenge. The Yanks, who won nine to Canada's seven last time, could win at least 14 based on actual and projected results from this winter's world championships.

The difference is breadth across sports: The US could win golds in nine, ranging from bobsled to speedskating to Nordic combined to snowboarding to figure skating. The X factor for the Canadians is home advantage, which was huge for the Americans in Salt Lake City in 2002. While it didn't do much for the hosts in Calgary in 1988, the addition since then of sports such as freestyle skiing, snowboarding, short-track speedskating, and curling should help.

Holding pattern
The brouhaha over the US Olympic Committee's take of TV and sponsor revenues has quieted, now that the IOC has agreed to put off negotiations until 2013, with nothing changing until 2020. The Olympic summer sports federations are outraged at the size of the USOC's share in the current open-ended agreement - 12.75 percent of TV rights fees and 20 percent of sponsorship cash - even though the vast majority of the IOC's income is derived from NBC and American corporations. Left unsaid has been the sweet deal that European and Asian broadcasters get from the IOC. NBC paid $894 million to show the Beijing Games, double what the EBU paid for all of Europe and well over 100 times what the Chinese paid . . . The US women's ice hockey team will go after its third world title in four years this week in Finland. Its chief rival, as always, will be Canada, which won eight straight titles before the Americans prevailed in 2005. Sixteen of the 20 players were on last year's gold-medal squad. This one includes 11 collegians and is coached by Wisconsin's Mark Johnson, whose varsity won the NCAA title. Eight New Englanders are on the squad: goalie Molly Schaus (Natick and Boston College), defensemen Kacey Bellamy (Westfield and UNH), Caitlin Cahow (Branford, Conn.), and Helen Resor (Greenwich, Conn.), and forwards Julie Chu (Fairfield, Conn.), Meghan Duggan (Danvers), Hilary Knight (Hanover, N.H.), and Erika Lawler (Fitchburg). Playing for Canada are Harvard star Sarah Vaillancourt and grad Jennifer Botterill. The Americans open with Japan on Saturday.

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