The world has had a chance to see the abundance and diversity of talent of Canada’s multicultural population, showcased in this year’s Olympic Games. Canada has been represented by many of its varied immigrant population over the last hundred years. Talented sportsmen and women, such as American born figure skater Kaitlyn Weaver have even immigrated t o Canada especially to compete in the Olympics. The 2010 Winter Olympics have just opened in Vancouver, British Columbia in February of this year.

Canada can feel proud of many notable new immigrants in the Olympic events. In running Canada has benefited from superstars from as far off as Jamaica and Ireland. In the 1994 summer Olympics, a gold medal went to Jamaican born Donovan Bailey, who immigrated to Canada at the age of 13. He once held the record as the world’s fastest man and has represented Canada numerous times in running events, although his preferred sport was initially basketball. The running team in 1996 also boasted two more immigrants: Robert Esmie from Jamaica and Bruny Surin from Haiti, who also had many fine achievements at those games. The first ever immigrant to win a running medal for Canada at the Olympics was Bobby Kerr from Ireland, who won a gold and a bronze at the London Olympic Games in 1908.

It is not just in running that Canadian immigrants have excelled: skiing, tennis, soccer and boxing, even walking have produced medals for Canada from a varied group of immigrants. The famous Nigerian wrestler, Daniel Igali, applied for refugee status in Canada after visiting it for the Commonwealth Games in 1994. He took home a gold medal for Canada from the 2000 summer Olympics in Sydney and has a confirmed place in Canada’s Sports Hall of fame.

Hockey is one of Canada’s favourite national sports, and even here immigrants have shown that they can make it their own. Back in 1924, Duncan Munro an immigrant from Scotland helped win a gold medal for the Canadian team by scoring 18 goals. In 2002 two Irish immigrants, Geraldine Heaney in the Womens Hockey Team and Owen Nolan in the Men’s Hockey Team each won gold medals at the winter Olympics in Salt Lake City Utah.