Canada added to its medal count at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi on Tuesday, but Vancouver golden boy Charles Hamelin continued his quite literal slide off the podium.
Hamelin, the short track speed skater who entered the Sochi Games as a gold medal favourite in every one of his events, crashed out of the men's 500m competition – his second fall these Games, after he tumbled out of the 1,000m men's event, as well.
His crash-and-burn came in the event's qualification heat.
When Hamelin fell, he had a decisive lead in the heat's final lap. (VIDEO via CBC Sports)
Canada however would pick up a silver medal on the short track on Tuesday on the female side of the aisle, courtesy of the four-woman team of Marianne St-Gelais, Valerie Maltais, Jessica Hewitt, and Marie-Eve Drolet.
They won the silver medal in the Women's 3,000m relay, originally coming behind both gold medallist South Korea and China. The Chinese team was then disqualified and Canada jumped into second, post-race.
The win – combined with another silver in the men's ski halfpipe from Edmonton's Mike Riddle – brings Canada's total medal count up to 17, trailing the United States and the Netherlands which each have 20.
Canada's gold medal count remains at four.
**********
**********
Canadian skier Mike Riddle (from Edmonton) also won his country a silver on Tuesday, finishing second overall in the Men's Ski Halfpipe final. (*Video above)
Riddle finished with a total of 90.60 (based on his best run).
The score sandwiched him in between gold medallist American David Wise (92.00) and Kevin Rolland, who won bronze for France with a score of 88.60.
**********
**********
In ice hockey, the star-stacked Canadians learned they will be playing Latvia on Wednesday morning (CBC, 9 a.m. PST). The Latvians stunned Switzerland with a 3-1 victory, advancing to the country's first-ever ice hockey Olympic quarterfinals.
If Canada wins, they will play the winner of USA-Czech Republic, after the Czechs held off a frantic third-period rally to beat Slovakia and two-goal scorer Marian Hossa, 5-3.
On the other side, Russia just barely finished off a stifling Norway team, scoring two goals in the final minute en route to an eventually easy-sounding 4-0 win. Russia will now face Finland in the Olympic tournament's quarterfinals.
And top seed Sweden will face Slovania, who beat Austria 4-0 on Tuesday to advance to the quarters in the country's first-ever Olympic ice hockey tournament.
The More You Know:
One of the Vancouver Canucks' eight players is prospect Ronalds Kenins, who plays for Latvia. Kenins beat two other Canucks – Swiss defencemen Yannick Weber and Raphael Diaz – in Tuesday's elimination round.
**********