And the winners are...
Nations twist the final medal tallies to suit their own results. That’s why Americans focused on total medals while Canadians boasted about winning the most gold (the most in Winter Olympic history, in fact). What’s easily lost in the nationalistic posturing are the outstanding individual performances. Four Canadians went home with double medals. Short track’s Marianne St-Gelais won two silvers while her boyfriend, Charles Hamelin, picked up two golds on the same ice, and teammate François-Louis Tremblay got gold and bronze. And speed skating’s Kristina Groves was awarded bronze and silver. But the most decorated athlete of all at these Games was Norway’s Marit Bjørgen. The skier dominated the Whistler cross-country course and went home from Vancouver with three golds, a silver and a bronze.
| • | • | •; | TOTAL | |
| United States | 9 | 15 | 13 | 37 |
| Germany | 10 | 13 | 7 | 30 |
| Canada | 14 | 7 | 5 | 26 |
| Norway | 9 | 8 | 6 | 23 |
| Austria | 4 | 6 | 6 | 16 |
| Russia | 3 | 5 | 7 | 15 |
| South Korea | 6 | 6 | 2 | 14 |
| China | 5 | 2 | 4 | 11 |
| Sweden | 5 | 2 | 4 | 11 |
| France | 2 | 3 | 6 | 11 |
| Switzerland | 6 | 0 | 3 | 9 |
| Netherlands | 4 | 1 | 3 | 8 |
| Czech Republic | 2 | 0 | 4 | 6 |
| Poland | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6 |
| Italy | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| Japan | 0 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| Finland | 0 | 1 | 4 | 5 |
| Australia | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Belarus | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Slovakia | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Croatia | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Slovenia | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Latvia | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Great Britain | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Estonia | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Kazakhstan | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |