Winter Olympics:Canadian confidence was giving way to talk of a Canadian Olympic curse after the hosts failed to strike gold on the opening day of competition at the Vancouver Winter Games.
Day one of the Vancouver Games was supposed to produce something never before seen in the Great White North - one of their own standing on top of the Olympic podium on home snow.
The only country to have staged a Summer (1976 Montreal) and Winter (1988 Calgary) Olympics and never won a gold medal; Canada had looked to end the run in short order with an opening day assault on the podium.
But Canada's gold medal drought was extended in the cruellest of fashions when American moguls skier Hannah Kearney snatched victory from home hope Jenn Heil on the last run of the night on Cypress Mountain, hinting that darker forces may be at work.
In Whistler, Mother Nature made sure downhiller Manuel Osborne-Paradis never made it out of the start hut when miserable weather forced the postponement of the men's blue ribbon while short tracker Charles Hamelin never made it into the final of the 1,500 metres.
With a billion dollar stage and over €81million poured into "Own the Podium", a programme designed to put Canada top the medal standings, the hosts hoped to see quick return on their investment.
"We're going to be hosts to the planet but there are things where there are no compromise," warned a defiant Marcel Aubut, president elect of the Canadian Olympic Committee on the eve of the opening ceremonies.
"These Games are ours! We're going to own the podium."
But despite plenty of bravado it was Canada's neighbours, the United States, perched top of the standings after the first day with four medals - a gold, silver and two bronze.
There were no golden celebrations to warm the home crowd on a cold, drizzly night but with 15 more days of competition ahead neither were there any signs of panic.
No doubt there was similar confidence in 1976 in Montreal and 1988 in Calgary. Failure to reach the summit today is sure to trigger nervous hand-wringing across the Great White North.
Canada will turn to some of its greatest ever Olympians on day two, where the spotlight will be on the Richmond Oval.
Speed skaters Clara Hughes, the only Canadian to win medals at both the Summer and Winter Games, Cindy Klassen, winner of five medals at the Turin Olympics and red hot Kristina Groves could provide a smashing breakthrough by sweeping the podium in the 3,000 metres.
If speed skaters stumble, the focus will once again shift to Cypress Mountain and the men's moguls where Alexandre Bilodeau, Pierre-Alexandre Rousseau and Vincent Marquis will aim to dethrone reigning Olympic champion Dale Begg-Smith, a Vancouver native who now competes for Australia.
-Reuters