Canada hails newly minted Olympic hero

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Like countless other Canadian boys, Alexandre Bilodeau aspired to be a hockey player. Good thing for Canada his mother nudged him into skiing instead.

On Monday, the headline in one of Vancouver’s daily newspapers was “Alexandre the Great,” and the 22-year-old from Quebec was suddenly a household name across the nation. By winning the moguls gold medal the night before, he ended what some of his compatriots were calling an Olympic curse – Canada had been shut out of golds in the two previous Olympics it hosted.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper called with congratulations. The Royal Canadian Mint and Canada Post swiftly announced plans to issue commemorative coins and stamps in Bilodeau’s honor. Marriage proposals proliferated on Twitter.

And for the first time ever, Canadians got to hear “O Canada” played in Olympic triumph on home territory as the Maple Leaf flag rose during the medal ceremony Monday.

The crowd at BC Place stadium leapt to its feet as Bilodeau emerged to walk to the podium. He lifted his arms in triumph after receiving the medal, thrust his ceremonial bouquet into the air, and then exhaled with a smile as the much-awaited national anthem began.

Bilodeau’s performance “will be forever burned into our national memory,” said Minister of State Rob Merrifield.

The president of the Canadian Olympic Committee, Michael Chambers, compared the moguls victory to perhaps the most famous moment in Canadian sports, a goal enabling Canada to beat the Soviet Union in an epic 1972 hockey series.

“It will be one of those Paul Henderson moments,” said Chambers, referring to the goal scorer. “Where were you when Alex Bilodeau won the first gold medal on Canadian soil?”

As a young boy growing in Rosemere, Quebec, near Montreal, Bilodeau was keen on hockey. His mother wearied of the logistics and steered him into skiing instead – a move made easier because Bilodeau, then 7, was enthralled by Quebec skier Jean-Luc Brassard’s moguls gold medal at the 1994 Winter Games in Norway.                  (AP)

Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo of China won their elusive prize in the pairs competition at the Vancouver Olympics Monday, coming out of retirement to add a gold medal to their two previous bronzes.