Will women lead the way for Canada in Sochi?

When it comes to Canadian medals at the Winter Olympics, female athletes have played a large role recently. The Olympics in Vancouver, Turin and Salt Lake all saw Canadian women take home over 50 per cent of the country's total medals, with Nagano in 1998 representing the last time men won over half of Canada's medals. The Olympic medal projections from Infostrada (part of a number of projections that have Canada doing very well) suggest that trend is going to continue in Sochi, with Canadian women projected to win 18 of Canada's 33 medals (plus help win three more in mixed competitions). Here's a breakdown of how many medals Canadian women have won at each Olympics stretching back to Nagano, including the projected Sochi numbers:

It's notable, however, that Canadian female athletes haven't dominated the gold-medal landscape as thoroughly over that span. Canada's only received more golds from women once in the past four Olympics, in Turin, (however, Nagano and Salt Lake both resulted in ties), and the discrepancy was particularly large in Vancouver, where just five of Canada's 14 golds came in women's events (a sixth came in a mixed event). That trend is also projected to continue by Infostrada, with Canadian women expected to win just four of the country's predicted 11 gold medals in Sochi. Here's a look at how medals of each type have broken down by gender over the last four Games, with projected Sochi numbers added as well:

What's the takeaway here? Well, investing in women's winter sports is clearly smart for Canada; there are large numbers of extremely talented Canadian female athletes with Olympic medal potential, and women's events have brought Canada the lion's share of overall medals over the past decade-plus. It helps that the field can be somewhat narrower on the women's side as well, as not all countries provide their female athletes with as much support as the men. However, it's interesting that Canadian women aren't winning as many golds as the men recently. That could indicate that additional funding's needed to push some female athletes and programs over the top, it could indicate that there are more dominant competitors from other countries in women's sports, or it may just be a one-off (after all, it was only one Games in Vancouver where men produced more golds than women, and the Sochi numbers are only projections). Overall, though, it looks like the Canadian women are going to be leading the way again in Sochi.