The must-have Olympic hockey collectible.The women had no chance. The men were nothing but one of six teams capable of winning. So said the critics and nay-sayers. But on February 21st and February 24th, 2002, the women and men of Canada's hockey teams completed an historic double, a perfect sweep of hockey gold at Salt Lake 2002. The men had to overcome a sceptical media and obsessive public pressure; the women had to battle the mental rigours of having lost eight games in a row to the U.S. But a loonie buried at centre ice by the Canadian rink crew and superior psychological preparation and inner confidence gave the Canadians the needed fortitude to overcome all oddsand a pro-American crowd to win gold in both men's and women's hockey.

For the men, it represented the end of a fifty-year drought that went back to the '52 Edmonton Mercurys. For the women, the win was sweet revenge for an unexpected loss at Nagano in 1998. For all of Canada, the wins not only satisfied a nation infatuated with hockeyit helped define and re-affirm our country's identity.

Andrew Podnieks attended, and reported on virtually every hockey game in Salt Lake as a journalist for the IIHF. He is a hockey historian and full-time author with numerous titles to his credit, including Canada's Olympic Hockey Teams: The Complete History, 1920-1998; Red, White, and Gold: Canada at the World Junior Championships, 1974-1999; Portraits of the Game: Classic Photographs from the Turofsky Collection at the Hockey Hall of Fame; and, The Essential Blue and White Book 2002. His newest book, A Day in the Life of the Maple Leafs, will be published this fall. Andrew Podnieks lives in Toronto, Ontario.