Updated: Sat Aug. 16 2008 11:06:41 PM

CTV.ca News Staff

Freestyle wrestler Carol Huynh won Canada's first gold medal at the Beijing Olympics on Saturday, as her family cheered from their home in Hazelton, B.C.

She defeated Japan's Chiharu Icho in the women's 48-kilogram final at the China Agricultural University Gymnasium on Saturday to win her first career Olympic medal.

Huynh guaranteed the medal win after beating Tatyana Bakatyk of Kazakhstan in her 48-kilogram semifinal match Saturday.

"I knew that I had to set the pace, set the tone and make sure that I wrestled my match and not just wait around to see what she was going to do," Huynh told reporters afterwards. "And it worked."

Huynh, 27, won gold at last year's Pan American Games and a bronze medal at the 2005 world championship.

"I was just thinking how proud I am to be Canadian," she said about her tears on the medal podium as O Canada was played. "And I was just thinking about the road to how I got here. It's been a long one but a good one."

After her win, coach Leigh Vierling carried her on his shoulders around the gymnasium as Huynh held up a Canadian flag.

The daughter of Vietnamese immigrants also won silver in the 46-kilogram division at the 2001 world championship and the 2000 event with a bronze.

Her family watched the event back in Hazelton, and cheered as she took her place on the podium.

"We were hollering and weeping and so excited," said Debbie Brauer, a family friend.

"To see her on the world stage and just doing what she can do and showing everyone, it was really emotional."

Tonya Verbeek, of Beamsville, Ont., added a bronze to the medal haul later Saturday in the 55-kilogram freestyle wrestling category.

Verbeek beat Sweden's Ida-Theres Nerell 1-0, 1-0 in the 55-kilogram category. Verbeek won silver at the 2004 Athens Olympics. However, she was philosophical about the situation.

"I won a match to get the bronze and you're losing a match to get the silver," Verbeek said. "So it is a different feeling."

Japan's Saori Yoshida, who beat Verbeek in the semi-final, went on to defeat China's Li Xu for the gold.

Canada's medal drought ended with a flurry. Dave Calder and Scott Frandsen also took silver in men's pairs rowing. The three wins came within an hour of each other after a seven-day drought.

One day later, Victoria's Ryan Cochrane took home a bronze medal in the 1,500-metre freestyle, finishing in a time of 14 minutes 42.69 seconds. It was the first time Canada had won a medal in a pool event since the Sydney Games in 2000.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper congratulated Canada's medal winners on Saturday.

"Each day, our athletes exhibit dignity, respect, and dedication to their sport and to their country," Harper said in a statement. "Their commitment to excellence and to achieving the Olympic dream truly makes them great sport ambassadors for Canada."

Before the medal drought ended, three Canadians came agonizingly close to standing on the podium:

• Weightlifter Christine Girard was three kilograms short of bronze in her weight class
• Swimmer Mike Brown missed bronze in the 200-metre breaststroke by 0.09 seconds
• Shot-putter Dylan Armstrong missed a bronze after falling short by a centimetre

Canada's men's eight rowing team takes to the water on Sunday, and they are expected to contend for a medal.

The Canadian Olympic Committee believes its goal of a top-16 finish in the medal standings when the Games conclude Aug. 24 is still achievable.

"It's never time to modify the medal projection until the gun goes at the end of the Games," committee president Michael Chambers told reporters Friday. "We're not even halfway into the Games right now and we're a second-half team."

Record set

Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, a newcomer to the 100-metre sprint, won a gold medal and set a new world record in the process.

Bolt's time Saturday was 9.69 seconds, wiping out the Olympic record of Canadian sprinter Donovan Bailey, who won gold in Atlanta back in 1996 with a time of 9.84 seconds.

Asafa Powell, Bolt's countryman and rival, didn't finish in the top three on Saturday. Bolt surpassed Powell's record time back in May when he ran a 9.72-second 100 metres in New York.

Bolt had been running in the 200-metre event, but then moved to the 100 metres last year. He is just 21 years old, but his 22nd birthday is next Thursday.

With files CTV British Columbia and The Canadian Press

Comments are now closed for this story

Felix
obviously it is a great accomplishment as it is long overdue but one cannot forget how lacking our athletes are compared to those representing China itself and the United States. Oh and by the way i am sure if people saw Michael Phelps win his 7th he actually should not have won that. His hands did not touch the end first.

Concerned Canadian
ABOUT TIME!!!

WMN
Maybe we can stop making excuses now...

CG
Glad to see that we have one of each in the medal standings.

Earl Robert
The first two comments were negative. Competing is what it's all about. Show some respect for the athletes. Stop looking for excuses to bash the "Games" and the "Athletes". GO CANADA I'm proud of ALL of you!

kate
Congratulations and well done indeed! Canada is proud of you!

C
Congradulations on your victory!
I think we should stray from the fact that we have not yet won and instead focus on recent victories.
I am proud of this and the other two medals Canada has taken in these games.

rickhum
Regardless of what has not happened with other athletes (who have tried their best), congratulations to Carol on her gold win and to Tonya on her bronze and Dave and Scott on their silver! Way to go! We are proud of you and am sure your families and friends are just bursting at the seams!

Steve in Aylmer
How many times do we here its about the journey, not the end result?

How come we have such a hard time accepting that same credo when it comes to Olympic athletes? They athletes who represent our nation are world class athletes regardless of whether they medal or not.

Its slightly concerning when it takes a week for a nation to get a medal, but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn`t change my day.

Congrats to our athletes who makes it to the Olympic games! You`re great entertainment, now, back to my potato chips and dip

LH
@Felix,

How do you know? The Serbian team did protest the results and the video was reviewed and it was determined Phelps was the winner fair and square. I don't know how you are capable of disputing that.

Congratulations to Carol Huynh!

FreakAlert
Way to go Carol Huynh!

Roger T
It's about time. What a relieve to see our country as a G8 nation on the charts again. For a minute we thought that it's hopeless for us Caandians but our hope has been reprieved from International headlines.

Thank you Carol for winning GOLD for us as it will lead the determination for the remaining of team CANADA.

All Canadians shine when GOLD shines on the world stage. It shows determinations and ambitions that giving up is not an option but only winning is.

Now, GO TEAM CANADA lets focuse on bringing home the medals!

jjaycee98
You have to be within a very small percent of the World Record to even be ALLOWED to compete at the Olympics. Why expect our athletes to be on the podium every time they compete. Personal best should be what is expected.
Also if you have a huge population then the chance of having larger numbers of acheivers is that much greater.
Not hearing much from any country except the US and China.

Sheila
Felix:
The end of the pool has an electronic touch pad that is read electronically by who touches it first - Michael Phelps touched first and won the Gold fair and square.

Roger T
To win it's a game - to lose it's a shame!

ca
Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Congratulations to Carol Huynh!
Congratulations To Canada!
GO TEAM CANADA !

Kim
Way to go CANADA!
Proud of ALL our athletes ~ where is all our loto $ going? why not to support our athletes the way the other countries are? Not just the stars but those that keep going even when they haven't any sponsors??

Roger T
I just heard in an interview from Carol on TV that her community had to raise money for her flight to compete in the Olympics. NOW this is more of a national disgrace for Canada's image and it's athletes as it shows that our Gov't cares more on funding wars than putting our people to compete for world sports.

It is so pathetic for a G8 country which is suppose to be rich in every way but yet fall short on fundings for our athletes.

For a sec I was so proud of our first medal winning but now knowing that her community had to raise (BEG) her flight cost, it's now more of a national shame for ALL our athletes than pride.

Beggin' is for the people with no ambition while one's Gov't and a nations support is winning for the masses.

Pat Simonson
Felix
To add to LH's comment there are electronic sensors on the wall to determine who touches first.

DD
Felix, his hand did touch first. He came in from above while the other guy glided straight in. When they showed the view from under the water, it was obvious Phelps touched first.

As for medals, with a population of only 33 million compared to the US and China, we should be more than happy with what we are seeing. We have neither the population nor the tax base to support the athletes like they can in the US and China. Many of the athletes are posting personal bests and Canadian records. I have to ask...if Canadian records are being broken, who do you suggest we replace them with? They're obviously the best in their fields.

A good example is the weight lifting. China is said to have a million women taking part in the sport. How on Earth can Canada expect to compete with that?

KC
I personally don't care if we haul in medals or not...we are not a super-power nor a superpower wannabe from the 3rd-world so we have nothing to prove to the world. We already are happy where we are in this world living in the greatest nation there is and so let the rest of the world compensate for what they are lacking and we'll enjoy what we have.

Anthony
One gold medal the whole Canadian Olympic delegation should have already received for is for making excuses.
In the end it is always a taxpayer that is at fault for not providing more money for their comfortable lifestyles.
The fact that most of them are rather mediocre performers has nothing to do with it.. :-)

Martin of NS
Excellent job. I woke up hearing this news and i was soo happy.

Sahib Reginawale
To win an Olympic gold medal is almost like winning a Nobel Prize in your field. Congratulations Carol Huynh. Rejoice.

Eric
Good, now people'll stop whining!

Congratulations to these two.

Yippee!
WOW!

Congradulations Carol!
I am just so damn proud of you....

Changed my desktop picture to the one of you holding your hard-earned Gold Medal with that infectious grin!

Who loves ya,kid?

JayRoc
Congratulations Canada!!! Go Canada Go! We are all so proud of our athletes.

ME
TO ALL THOSE WHINERS WHO SAY IT"S ABOUT TIME AND WHY AREN'T OUR ATHLETES WINNING--BAH!!
Once in 4 years you jump on the bandwagon and say WHY--What about the 4 years between. What do you do to support the athletes between Olympics? Do you encourage your company to become a corporate sponsor? Do you support companies who are Olympic sponsors? What does your town or city do for them?

It takes a long, grueling 4 years to get there and if you don't have good coaching, encouragement or facilities you are one step behind before you even started. Why do you think the rowers do so well--they now have the coaching, facilities and support staff. Even the people who live in 3rd world countries contribute more support than we do. Jamacia has high school track meets where everyone comes out and supports the athletes. It's as big as a championship there.Nigeria celebrates it's athletes and I could go on and on.

Just who do you think is more disapointed the athletes who put their heart and soul on the line or you who sit back and do nothing.

I say congrats to all our athletes and that is not to take away from those who won medals. They deserve special congratulations--well done

John
Stayed up until 2am something here in BC to watch her performance live. Excellent performance by Carol Huynh. Absolutely gold performance.

Proud to be Canadian. Proud to be Asian-Canadian.

M
Congratulations!! You have made us proud!

MaggieB
Carol, you rock! Tonya, well done! These two women went to Beijing to win and accomplished that goal.

Congrats!

Earl Robert
Felix simply won't accept what happened. I'm glad to see so many positive comments. Well done Canada, go for Gold and no matter what happens your an inspiration for all young athletes. It's about time the Government helped out financially.

The most powerful olympic nation
First weight gold, silver, and bronze medals, 5, 4.5, and 4. Next multiply the number of medals by the weight. Next add the numbers. Next divide the total by the population of the nation. Result:
Australia is by far the most powerful Olympic nation on the planet!

Cambootz
I am a wrestler myself and to have two medals from wrestling makes me proud. The emphasis goes too much on other sports and people think wrestling isnt important. Proved ya wrong!

rtoley
Proud of you!
proud to be chinese-canadian.

Carlos
Congrats!!! Proud to be Canadian!

Sheri
When all is said and done and all the nay sayers have had their opportunity to vent what a waste of money sending Canadian athletes to Summer Games, I am never more proud than when we win a medal, Any medal! I want to yell at all of nay sayers, "THAT's Why we send our athletes!." I love Canada and I am so very proud of ALL our athletes, I sing with pride when we win gold and cheer for silver and bronze and near medals and personal bests! For those that do nothing but sit on the couch and complain how poorly we are showing get off your sorry butt train untold hours for years and see if you can YOU do any better!

Heather on the Sunshine Coast
There is nothing "lacking" in Canada's athletes. They are in competition with the top few hundred athletes out of the world's several billion population. The medal winners are an inspiration (hey, who knew Canadian women now have a reputation as wrestlers? don't mess with us, baby!) but so are all the competitors. For the above critics, I can only say: GET OFF THE COUCH AND DO BETTER, OR GET AN ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT!

Annie - Vancouver BC
I think every athelete who participate the Olympics is a winner! consider they've put in endless years of training and effort to achieve their goal!

RVH
sorry Earl its not all about competing. Thats just part of it. This is the big stage and a personal or canadian record doesn't really mean squat. Its medals or nothing.

Max
Congratulations to our medal winners!

Although it will never happen; when this round of the Olympics conclude, Canadians should consider whether it truly is important for our athletes to score medals on an international stage.

The Olympics are NOT about participation; they're about WINNING. That's why they don't award medals to people who finish fourth and below. The focus is on the Gold. (Nobody strives for Silver or Bronze.)

Being complacent or content with losing is for losers. Countries go to the Olympics to WIN medals. It's all about national pride and international prowess, folks. True champions don't get excited about just being in Beijing, and nobody cares who ranks 12th in the world in something...except for maybe the athlete's family and friends.

Judging by the posts here and in days prior, it seems that perhaps many Canadians just don't get it. Furthermore, too many people think that Olympic success resides in government funding. It doesn't. (Team U.S.A. relies on private funding.) It comes down to our collective desire to WIN and our willingness to back it up with money.

Before we talk money, we should evaluate our competitive attitude. Is WINNING the objective, or, just competing on a world stage?

P.S. The answer relates directly to the funding issue.

Proud Canadian
awww I was hoping for the goose egg as there's nothing else to cheer for. the dream is over. we really are terrible at summer sports.

Andrea
Congratulations to Carol and the entire team on a fabulous job!!! You've made BC and Canada very proud.

Marcel
Now that Canada has finally won medals at Bejing, this will really give other athletes a real boost. I think we will have a great second week and that Canada will probrably have more medals than we did in Athens. Go Canada Go

K. Pope
Hey, Roger T, if you're such a keener why don't you send them some of your own money ? And if you did, send some more instead of whinning about under funding...

Shamaro
Hey Carol, congratulations on your gold medal. Well deserved and a wonderful performance.

You've made all of us back here in Canada very proud of you. Hopefully, with this magnificent performance, this will inspire all of Canada's Olympic team over there in Beijing.

Well done!!

Craig
@Max: "nobody cares who ranks 12th in the world in something"

The Olympics aren't always about winning. Not everyone can win.

You people are all saying that personal bests mean nothing unless you win a medal. Excuse me? Most of the field in an event have little to no shot at a medal, yet they still compete.

Are you saying they shouldn't even come? Why invite them at all? Why not invite just the top 5 in every sport to compete?

Case in point. Dylan Armstrong is tenth in the world and had little opportunity to medal. Yet he still gave his all and walked away in fourth. Am I supposed to be upset because he didn't get that bronze? Of course not, he rose 6 spots in the world with one throw and I'm ecstatic about that.

It's all about medals? Sheeesh, have you ever heard about the spirit of competition or showcasing the best of the best?

By the way. I thought Canadian's didn't want to act like Americans. I guess that only applies to everything except sport.

CC
Way to go - 3 medals in one day - YAY Team Canada.

No matter what people say you should be proud of the fact that you have worked very hard to just get to the Olympics - many of those whining about the lack of medals are sitting at home on their couches, eating chips and complaining. Maybe if more people made the effort that you have done we'd have more athletes to represent our wonderful country.

I've heard rumours that the pool that Keith Beavers has been training at in Waterloo (WLU campus?) is on the chopping block - leaving all those prospective swimmers scrambling around the city to find a place to train. Perhaps if our government spent more money promoting health and exercise instead of pulling money from these endeavours we would have a healthier nation and could be tougher competition in these types of games.

Way to go Team Canada - keep up the great work!!

Claude
Way to go Carol. What a bubbly person was a joy watching her interview.

Terri Boland
Congratulations

GO TEAM CANADA!!

Roger T
Annie - Vancouver BC
I think every athelete who participates in the Olympics is a winner! consider they've put in endless years of training and effort to achieve their goal!....

The only reason why most people are saying that it's just medals or competition for joyment is because Canada as a Nation sucks at sports and can't compete to win but shame our nation.

We really suck and have brought shame to ourselves on the world stage. A G8 country that produced a bunch of useless athletes except a few which mind you had to raise money for their flights to compete is the biggest disgrace and embarassment to our nation.

Proud to be Canadian but sucks to be seen on the world stage as losers and whiners.

With all the bashing on the trivial issues on the hosting nation it even makes us Canadians more desparate and envious and intensifies the pressure on our own nation around the world as a G8 country that really sucks!

Sami
That's just awesome! I knew Canada would come through. I am a proud Canadian living in Mexico now, but never stopped cheering!!!

Ashley
Congratulations Carol! We're proud of you!

Randy
.: While I congratulate Carol on her gold medal, and all the athletes from Canada, we need to face reality - our country just can't cut it against comparative countries in the Olympics. Consider Australia vs Canada. Australia: estimated population in July 2007: 20,743,300; Medal count at the 2008 Olympics: 25, including 7 gold. Canada: estimated population in July 2007: 33,390,141; medal count at 2008 Olympics as of 16 August 2008: 3, including one gold.

What's wrong with this picture? We can't cut it, plain and simple. It is typical of Canadians to sit back quietly and applaud the effort, and then criticize any other Canadian who DARES criticize the athletes' combined efforts, but the hard truth is, we are not a country that can compete on an international level with countries of comparable size and economy, and Australia is kicking Canada's butt in a serious way.

So much for all the extra money (Read: taxes) and so-called effort Canada gave in preparation for these games. What a joke. I feel for the athletes. I get sick listening to our sportscasters having to tell us again and again that we "just about made it", "couldn't quite make it to the finals", etc etc etc ad nauseum, and then expect the viewers to be content with knowing "he or she gave 110%". Enough already.

Dian Mo
Congratulations! We do see the strength of the multi-culturalism in Canada.

The Country should give the Olympics medalists awards.

Annie - Vancouver BC
Well, Roger T, I guess you are not into any sports yourself, and don't understand the true meaning of competition and sportsmanship. If you are so negative, maybe you shouldn't watch the Olympics.

David Root
I wonder how much better our athletes might do if more Canadians showed some confidence in them?

82% responded "no" to todays poll, asking if Canada will finish in the top 16.

C'mon, folks. Show some support!

Ken P.
Hey, Roger T, I think you better call someone, you're starting to freak me out. The Olympics are just games, just like the NHL, NBA or CFL. In the end it's just a moment in time... What really counts is the health and happiness of you and your loved ones...