It was a long time coming but the Latvia’s 4-man bobsleigh crew consisting of 26 year old pilot Oskars Melbārdis and crew members Daumants Dreiškens (29), Jānis Strenga (28) and Arvis Vilkaste (24) brought home a silver on the last day of the Sochi Games. They finished behind Russia by 9/100th of a second. After a shaky 1st heat when they finished 5th, the crew nailed it on the second when they shot up to 2nd place and kept that position through the 3rd and 4th heats.

Twenty six years ago at the Calgary Olympics in 1988, a four man crew piloted by Zintis Ekmanis consisting of three Latvians and a Russian, and a two man crew piloted by Jānis Kipurs, brought home a gold and a bronze. Unfortunately the medals went to the Soviet Union. Four years earlier in Sarajevo, Zintis Ekmanis piloted a 2-man sled to a bronze.

When the Soviets decided to take up bobsleighing in 1980 they leveraged the luge tradition in Latvia and Latvians were front and centre in Soviet bobsleigh. There were high hopes that the medals would continue after Latvia regained independence. That was not to be the case. Bobsleighing is an expensive sport. Sleighs are high tech and cost over $100,000 each. Latvian bobsleighing struggled as the country transitioned to a free market economy where state funding had to be replaced by private sponsors.

The luge and skeleton are less expensive and Latvian athletes in those sports were able to eclipse the bobsleighers. But over the last few seasons, the bobsleighers were starting to podium on the World Cup circuit and they finally delivered on February 23 at Sochi.

Meanwhile Latvia’s second crew consisting of Oskars Kibermanis, Raivis Broks, Helvījs Lūsis and Vairis Leiboms finished 14th. Only twenty years old, pilot Kibermanis will be a future force in Latvian bobsleigh. Earlier in the week during the two-man bobsleigh competition, pilot Oskars Melbārdis and brakeman Daumants Dreiškens came in 5th while Kibermanis and Leiboms finished 16th.

Latvia’s flag bearer at the Sochi Olympics closing ceremonies is bobsleigher Daumants Dreiškens. He has been competing in bobsleigh since 2003 and was chosen by the Latvian Olympic Committee as an athlete who sets the example for others through his character, work ethic, perseverance and teamwork.

Perhaps the only black mark for Latvia at these Olympics was that hockey player Vitalijs Pavlovs tested positive in random doping tests conducted on four players from each team after every game. Ostensibly it was a food supplement. Pavlovs plays for Dinamo Riga in the KHL.

Top 10 finishes for Latvia included a 4th place finish by Tomass Dukurs in the skeleton just shy of a medal, a 5th in two-man bobsleigh, 9th place by Andrejs Rastorgujevs in the 12.5km biathlon pursuit, 10th place by Mārtiņš Rubenis in the luge and another 10th place by Oskars Gudromovičs and Pēteris Kalniņš in the men’s double luge. As a footnote, Latvia pocketed one of only three goals scored in hockey against Canada as the Canadians advanced and eventually won gold against Sweden.

With two silver and two bronze medals, this is Latvia’s best Winter Olympics showing topping the two medals picked up in 2010 at Vancouver. Latvia is proving to be a sliding power and along with Russia and the United States were the only countries with medals in all three disciplines, the bobsleigh, luge and skeleton.

Russia won the official medals standing where a gold counts more than a silver and a silver more than bronze. Norway came second and Canada third. The United States came second in the unofficial total number of medals count regardless of colour. Latvia placed a distant 23rd with 26 out of 89 countries at Sochi picking up medals.

But Latvia was the only one of the three Baltic countries to medal.

Latvia pulled off an upset at Sochi in men’s hockey on February 18 beating favoured Switzerland 3:1. That set up a David and Goliath battle the next day between Latvia and Canada.

Canada is loaded with NHL stars led by captain and superstar Sidney Crosby. They were expected to cruise by Latvia on their way to the semi-finals. In 15 previous outings against Canada dating back to 1936, Latvia lost all but one, some by huge margins. The exception was a tie back in 1997.

But the match at Sochi played out differently. Latvia gave Canadians watching back home from coast to coast a huge scare as their team barely made it past the upstarts with a late 2:1 victory.

Canada opened with a goal in the first period but Latvia evened the score with a long lead pass by Artūrs Kulda to Lauris Dārziņš who broke in on Canadian goaltender Carey Price to put it up in the top shelf.

It stayed that way until well into the third period with Latvia playing a physical and disciplined game. The defense and spectacular play by 21 year old Latvian goaltender and Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Kristers Gudļevskis shut out the Canadians.

By that point Canada was throwing everything they had and Latvia was hanging on weathering the storm. Just under seven minutes from the end, a shot from the point through traffic beat Gudļevskis on the short side.

Latvia had a couple of chances late in the game but in the end Canada survived and now moves on to the semi-finals against the United States. The Swedes take on the Finns in the other semi-final after Finland knocked out Russia earlier in the day.

The star of the Latvia – Canada game was goaltender Kristers Gudļevskis who stopped 55 of 57 shots. Latvia only had 16 against Canada. He became an instant hero. Media outlets across Canada marvelled at his play.

Ironically the head of the Canadian team at Sochi is Steve Yzerman. He is also the general manager at Tampa Bay. A good time for Gudļevskis to impress his boss sitting in the stands!

Zemgus Girgensons, Lauris Dārziņš, Jānis Sprukts, Artūrs Kulda, Oskars Bārtulis and Sandis Ozoliņš all had great games but everyone on the team deserves credit for coming through.

Canadian Ted Nolan, who is an experienced professional and junior coach as well as Latvia’s head coach, has also been a huge factor for Latvia at Sochi. Even though winless in the first three games they came close against higher ranked teams. According to Latvian players, Nolan believed in them and made them believe in themselves. Nolan who is also coach of the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres will be back as Latvia’s coach in this year’s IIHF World Championships in May.

Despite the loss, today’s game was a huge moral victory for Latvia. Taking Canada to the wire in hockey is like a lesser country almost defeating Brazil in the World Cup. And the PR this brings for Latvia … it’s something the Latvian government could never buy.

It wasn’t what reigning world skeleton champion Martins Dukurs was hoping for but it was a silver medal for Latvia nevertheless. This is Dukurs second Olympic silver medal. He had one four years ago at the Games in Whistler.

Dukurs was less than a second off the mark but in the skeleton that’s enough. In turn the bronze medalist from the United States finished more than two seconds behind Dukurs. That is a huge margin. Older brother Tomass Dukurs, who finished second on this year’s world cup circuit, missed the medals by a fraction of a second.

This time gold went to Russian Alexander Tretiatov who had finished behind both Dukurs brothers in the world cup circuit. But the Olympics is a whole new game. The entire winter world is watching, the media coverage is intense and the expectations back home are huge. It was Tretiatov who owned the Sochi track on his home ground.

Earlier in the week, the Latvian lugers came through. On February 12 brothers Andris and Juris Sičs picked up a bronze in the luge men’s doubles. A day later the lugers pulled in another bronze in the mixed team relay where the men’s singles is followed by the women’s singles and then the men’s doubles. Veteran Mārtiņš Rubenis led off, he was followed by Eliza Tīruma and then by the Sičs brothers. They shut out 4th place Canada by 1/10th of a second.
Tīruma is the first woman from independent Latvia to win a Winter Games medal. Four years ago the Sičs brothers picked up a silver at Whistler while Rubenis had a bronze in Turin.

The two Sičs have had an uphill battle since Whistler. In May 2011, Juris Sičs was in a terrible car accident in Latvia two weeks before the birth of his son. The entire luge team donated blood. Doctors were skeptical he would be able compete. Andris too had injuries to overcome after Whistler. Both persevered and are back on the podium.

The tradition of sliding sports in Latvia goes back to 1967 when a group of enthusiasts built the rickety “Cīrulīšu” track near the city of Cēsis. The Soviet Union decided to enter the sport in 1972. Latvians were front and centre and at the 1980 Lake Placid Games, Vera Zozuļa won the gold and Ingrīda Amantova came home with the bronze.

In 1980 the Soviet Union turned its attention to the bobsleigh and Latvian luger Ronalds Upatnieks was tapped as its first bobsleigh coach. Latvian bobsleighers picked up medals for the Soviet Union at the 1984 Games in Sarejevo and in 1988 at Calgary. The sliding track at Sigulda was built in 1986.

Since Latvia gained independence, its bobsleighers have been shut out from Olympic medals but over the past few seasons have had medal finishes on the world cup circuit. While not favourites, they are contenders. Latvia has two crews in the two man bobsleigh which takes place on February 16-17 and two in the four man on February 22-23. The two pilots are Oskars Melbārdis and Oskars Ķibermanis.

Other Latvian athletes have also been competing in the short-track, biathlon, women’s skeleton, cross-country and downhill skiing but they have finished far from the podium.

While winless, Latvia’s men’s hockey team coached by Canadian Ted Nolan has attracted attention for their play. They lost 0:1 to Switzerland with the Swiss scoring a heart-breaking goal with only 8 seconds to play. They followed with a 2:4 loss against the Czechs in a tight game. Perhaps their best outing was the 3:5 loss against the highly ranked Swedes. Rather than sitting back, they took the game to the Swedes, played physical with some bone-rattling body-checks and never gave up. Unlike previous years the power play looked good. Lauris Darziņš goal off a blind back-hand pass from Jānis Sprukts was one of the prettiest goals seen at the tournament. Were it not for some undisciplined penalties resulting in power play goals for the Swedes, the result could have been different.

The team is led by grizzled veteran and hockey legend Sandis Ozoliņš who despite being 41 years old logged lots of ice team and even though a defenceman, he was often in deep reminiscent of his thrilling play years ago while in his prime. Goaltending has been great with Edgars Masalskis coming up big against the Swiss and Czechs while youngster Kristers Gudļevskis played a solid game against the Swedes making several spectacular saves late in the game.

The seeding for the qualifying round in hockey will be decided by the results on February 16. Even though winless, Latvia will end up either 11th or more likely 10th in the 12 team tournament. They will play a winner takes all game against the Czechs or possibly the Swiss on February 18 to see who advances to the quarter-finals where the top four teams had a bye. Although a stretch, the Latvian team has been playing good hockey and they could advance.

Latvian sports fans can follow their athletes by checking the calendar at – http://sportacentrs.com/soci_2014/musejo_kalendars/03022014-latvijas_sportistu_kalendars_socos