Winter Games of the XIV Olympiad
Canadian figure skater Brian Orser faced an exceptionally keen field of competitors at the 1984 Games in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. But the Canadian champion pulled off a silver medal, the best finish ever by a Canadian man in Olympic figure skating. The British couple of Jane Torvill and Christopher Dean mesmerized the world with their performance of Ravel’s Bolero.
In the 500 m speed skating race, Gaétan Boucher, flag bearer for the Canadian team during the opening ceremony, won a bronze medal, one tenth of a second away from silver, two tenths of a second from gold. In the 1000 m race, he beat arch rival Sergei Khlebnikov of the Soviet Union by eight-tenths of a second to win the gold medal. And in the 1500 m, Gaétan won the gold by half a second, again ahead of Khlebnikov. Added to the silver he won four years earlier, these four medals were the most ever won by a Canadian winter Olympian, until 2002. From coast to coast, Gaétan Boucher became a household name.
