Canadian athletes celebrate victorious Day 8 in Pyeongchang

Canadian athletes have their eye on the prize, as they bring home two medals last night in the short track speed skating event.

Here’s a breakdown of what happened:

1,000-meter Short Track Speed Skating

21-year-old Quebecois athlete Samuel Girard took the gold in his first ever Olympic games last night. Girard finished fourth in the semi-finals earlier this week and he advanced to the final when fellow Canadian training partner Charles Hamelin was assessed a penalty.

The Toronto Star reported that Hamelin was supportive and encouraging to Girard going into the final. He is now Canada’s first Olympic Champion in this event.

1500-meter Short Track Speed Skating

Kim Boutin earned her second podium finish of the week with a bronze medal in the 1500-meter Short Track Speed Skating event.

Earlier this week, Boutin was bumped up to third after Korea’s Minjeong Choi was disqualified. The internet was quick to react, and Boutin spent the week fending off online threats. She kept her head steady to earn her second Olympic bronze medal last night.

The 23-year-old from Sherbrooke, Quebec shared the podium with Choi, who won the gold in the 1500-meter event. Li Jinyu of China secured the silver medal.

Boutin talked to the National Press about the threats she received, stating that “I have a pretty awesome team and they told me I didn’t have to care anymore about this situation because it’s under control. But of course it was hard. After my warmup today I cried. It was a lot of emotion. I had to come back here to do a race. I was just scared. I think I don’t know what they were saying. I was just scared for my security. Everybody told me it was under control and don’t worry about it, but it was on my mind.”

Here’s the medal count as of today:

Rank	Country	Gold Medal	Silver Medal	Bronze Medal	Total
1	Norway	7	8	7	22	Norway Medal Summary
2	Germany	9	4	4	17	Germany Medal Summary
3	Canada	5	5	5	15	Canada Medal Summary
4	Netherlands	6	5	2	13	Netherlands Medal Summary
5	United States	5	2	2	9	United States Medal Summary
6	Austria	3	2	4	9	Austria Medal Summary
7	Japan	1	5	3	9	Japan Medal Summary
8	Olympic Athlete from Russia	0	2	7	9	Olympic Athlete from Russia Medal Summary
9	Sweden	4	3	0	7	Sweden Medal Summary
10	France	3	2	2	7	France Medal Summary
11	Switzerland	2	4	1	7	Switzerland Medal Summary
12	Italy	2	1	3	6	Italy Medal Summary
13	South Korea	3	0	2	5	South Korea Medal Summary
14	Czech Republic	1	2	2	5	Czech Republic Medal Summary
15	China	0	4	1	5	China Medal Summary
16	Great Britain	1	0	3	4	Great Britain Medal Summary
17	Slovakia	1	2	0	3	Slovakia Medal Summary
18	Australia	0	2	1	3	Australia Medal Summary
19	Finland	0	0	3	3	Finland Medal Summary
20	Belarus	1	1	0	2	Belarus Medal Summary
21	Spain	0	0	2	2	Spain Medal Summary
22	Poland	1	0	0	1	Poland Medal Summary
23	Slovenia	0	1	0	1	Slovenia Medal Summary
24	Kazakhstan	0	0	1	1	Kazakhstan Medal Summary
24	Liechtenstein	0	0	1	1	Liechtenstein Medal Summary