Team Canada continues to rack up medals on the hill in Beijing

Canada continues to see success on the hill, with skiers and snowboarders producing three of the country’s four podium finishes on Thursday at the Beijing Olympics.

Eliot Grondin (Sainte-Marie, Que.) was a photo finish away from winning Canada’s second gold in China.

The 20-year-old lunged across the finish line 0.02 seconds behind the winner from Austria to claim silver, Canada’s fourth snowboard medal of the Games.

Jack Crawford (Toronto) won Canada’s first-ever Olympic medal in the alpine combined, taking bronze.

Canada’s mixed aerials team also captured bronze. The trio of Marion Thenault (Sherbrooke, Que.), Miha Fontaine (Lac Beauport, Que.) and Lewis Irving (Quebec City) finished with a total of 290.98 points to edge out fourth-place Switzerland.

Isabelle Weidemann (Ottawa) placed second in the women’s 5,000-metre long-track speed skating event to earn a silver medal. It’s the 26-year-old’s second medal so far in Beijing after she captured bronze in the 3,000m.

Canada is now up to 12 medals — one gold, four silver and seven bronze.

Alpine skiing: In the alpine combined, Crawford finished second in the downhill and seventh in slalom to earn the bronze.

Broderick Thompson (Whistler, B.C.) was eighth in the downhill and eighth in the slalom to finish eighth overall. Brodie Seger (North Vancouver, B.C.) finished third in the downhill, but fell back to ninth overall after a 10th-place finish in the slalom.

Trevor Philp (Calgary) didn’t finish the slalom portion.

The women’s super-G final is set for Thursday night, with Marie-Michele Gagnon (Lac Etchemin, Que.) and Roni Remme (Collingwood, Ont.) representing Canada.

Cross-country skiing: Dahria Beatty (Whitehorse, Yukon) finished 18th in the women’s 10-kilometre Classic.

Katherine Stewart-Jones (Chelsea, Que.) was 36th, Cendrine Brown (Saint-Jerome, Que.) was 48th and Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt (Morin Heights, Que.) was 61st.

Curling: In men’s action, Brad Gushue’s team scored a single in the 10th end as Canada defeated Norway 6-5 to improve to 2-0.

Gushue (St. John’s, N.L.), Mark Nichols (St. John’s, N.L.), Brett Gallant (Charlottetown, P.E.I.) and Geoff Walker (Edmonton) are to play Switzerland on Friday.

On the women’s side, Jennifer Jones’ foursome scored three in the seventh end to take a 9-6 lead and then stole a deuce in the 10th to clinch a 12-7 victory over South Korea. It was Canada’s first game of the Olympics.

Jones (Winnipeg), Kaitlyn Lawes (Winnipeg), Jocelyn Peterman (Red Deer) and Dawn McEwen (Winnipeg) are to play Japan early Friday and Sweden on Friday evening.

Figure skating: Keegan Messing (Girdwood, Alaska) finished 10th in the men’s singles free skate and wound up in 11th place overall.

Hockey: Canada’s men’s team opened Olympic competition with a 5-1 victory over Germany.

Alex Grant (Antigonish, N.S.), Ben Street (Coquitlam, B.C.), Daniel Winnik (Toronto), Maxim Noreau (Montreal) and former Regina Pats star Jordan Weal (North Vancouver, B.C.) scored for Canada. Prince Albert’s Adam Cracknell had an assist for the winners.

The Canadians are to face the United States on Friday night.

Canada’s women’s team is to face Sweden in a quarterfinal Friday morning.

Luge: Canada finished sixth in the team relay competition.

Snowboard: Grondin wasn’t the only Canadian in the men’s snowboard cross. Liam Moffatt (Truro, N.S.) and Kevin Hill (Vernon, B.C.) were eliminated in the 1/8 final round.

Elizabeth Hosking (Longueuil, Que.) finished sixth in the women’s halfpipe, with Brooke D’Hondt (Calgary) 10th.