Canadian gold rush hits ten but they can forget owning the podium

UNFORTUNATELY for Canada, it's quantity and not quality that matters across the pond.

BITTER RIVALS: Canada's approach to the medals table means there is just one more route for Canada to hit the USA where it hurts (Getty Images)

When Canada's women's ice hockey team partied a little too hard after their victory, perhaps they had good reason to - they had just ensured their country's largest gold medal haul at a Winter Olympics in history.

Twenty-four hours later and as short track speed skater Charles Hamelin and then the relay team, of which he was a part, were victorious, Canada's gold rush had reached ten - more than any other nation.

After much [and deserved] ridicule, Own the Podium appears to be on......Alas not.

In Canada the medals table is measured in total number of medals with gold bearing no extra value - do they not study chemistry in Canada?

The $110m Own the Podium scheme has been a point of ridicule for Canada and exploited to the full by their rivals.

The USA, who top the medals table in terms of how many won [34 to Canada's 21], have been quick to tell anyone that will listen that they are renting the podium for a month.

The British press have been scathing in their indictment while those officials from Blighty over in Vancouver have, upper lips as stiff as ever, quietly disapproved.

After all, London is the next city to welcome the Olympic torch and there is no doubt something being cooked up on home shores with an equally offensive code name in preparation for 2012.

The generally accepted purpose of Own the Podium was to guarantee success on two levels. Firstly to end Canada's wait for a home Olympic gold medallist after the barren landscapes that were Montreal 1976 and Calgary 1988.

Secondly for widespread excellence in all fields - in other words to top the medals table, as they see it, with all medals equal.

But ‘Own the Podium', such an antagonistic name and so out of character with Canadian culture, was also intentionally designed to stick two fingers up at the old enemy, the USA.

Since poet Shane Koyczan struck a chord at the opening ceremony with his poem ‘We Are More' [incidentally by the far the best bit of three hours of dross], the anti-American sentiment of these Olympics has been evident.

"Some say what defines us is something as simple as 'please' and 'thank you'. We say 'zed' instead of 'zee'," Koyczan said.

Unfortunately for Canada, their communist approach to the medals table means they cannot hit the USA where it really hurts.

Still, there's a small matter a hockey match to come on Sunday.......