Australia's curling win over Canada joins list of great Winter Olympic upsets

Australia sprung a surprise for the ages in mixed doubles curling at Beijing 2022 on Sunday (6 February).

Hours after beating Switzerland 9-6 for their first win at the Olympic Winter Games, Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt went on to beat the sport's powerhouse nation Canada 10-8 after one extra end.

Playing against their coach, PyeongChang 2018 gold medallist John Morris, and Rachel Homan, the Aussies raced out into a 7-0 led before being pegged back to 8-8.

Hewitt said of Morris afterwards, "We got a really nice card from him before we headed over. He signed off with, 'I'm your friend first and coach second.' So that's our relationship with him. But once we get on the ice, we're fierce competitors and that's who we are like, that's our DNA."

Australia does not even have a dedicated curling rink, something which might change after their stunning success which would be perhaps equivalent to Canada beating Australia in men's 15-a-side rugby.

It certainly ranks along the biggest shocks the Olympic Winter Games has ever seen. Here are five more.

Salt Lake City 2002 - Steven Bradbury, short track

Australia feature among the greatest shocks in Winter Olympic history courtesy of Steven Bradbury's 1000m gold at Salt Lake City.

Having reached the final in fortuitous circumstances when three rivals in front of him crashed on the final bend to leave him in second place, Bradbury was again at the back watching the four skaters in front of him fight it out.

Apolo Anton Ohno led the way but Li Jiajun tried to pass him on the final lap with Ahn Hyun-soo (later Victor An) joining the fray.

The three collided leaving Mathieu Turcotte with nowhere to go, and a stunned Bradbury glided through to cross the line first with arms aloft and the widest of smiles across his face.

It was as historic as it was unexpected with the 28-year-old the first athlete from the Southern Hemisphere to win a Winter Olympic gold medal.

His name even became part of common Aussie parlance with pulling off an unexpected triumph known as 'doing a Bradbury'.

Lake Placid 1980 - USA's 'Miracle on Ice', ice hockey

Going into Lake Placid 1980, the Soviet Union had won gold in five of the previous six Olympic Winter Games, while USA's only win had come at Squaw Valley 1960.

Few gave the USA's team comprised of college players much hope against the well-oiled 'Red Machine', but coach Herb Brooks and his men had other ideas.

The first period ended 2-2, and the Soviets looked on course for victory when Aleksandr Maltsev put them into a 3-2 lead in the second.

But Mark Johnson scored his second of the game, and captain Mike Eruzione netted the game winner with NBC commentator Al Michaels famously saying, "Do you believe in miracles? YES!" as the final buzzer went.

Gold still was not secured with USA needing to beat Finland in their final game. They did so 4-2 to claim the most unexpected of Olympic crowns.

The triumph was immortalised in the 2004 Hollywood film 'Miracle' with Brooks played by Kurt Russell. It continues to inspire young American hockey players to this day including Beijing 2022 Olympian Matt Beniers.

The squad also lit the torch at the Opening Ceremony of the Salt Lake City 2002 Games.

PyeongChang 2018 - Ester Ledecka, alpine skiing

Ester Ledecka completed the most improbable of doubles at PyeongChang 2018, becoming the first person to win gold in two different sports at a single Olympic Winter Games.

Best known for her snowboard racing exploits, the Czech had also been picked to represent her country in alpine skiing's Super G.

With the favourites usually allocated start bib numbers from 1-20, it looked like Austria's Anna Veith would retain her title from Sochi 2014.

Several broadcasters had already cut away from the race when Ledecka, wearing start bib number 26, started her descent.

They missed one of the most unforgettable moments in Olympic history as the 22-year-old beat Veith's time by one hundredth of a second to take a shock gold medal.

A week later, she took a more predictable victory in the snowboard parallel giant slalom to make history.

Lillehammer 1994 - Oksana Baiul, figure skating

Oksana Baiul won Ukraine's first Olympic gold medal in a women's singles event often remembered for different reasons.

In what was one of the Olympic Winter Games' most infamous storylines, Tonya Harding and her ex-husband hired someone to injure Olympic bronze medallist Nancy Kerrigan on the eve of the U.S. Figure Skating Championships the previous month.

Both women made it to Norway with Harding finishing eighth and Kerrigan taking silver behind the 16-year-old.

Baiul had overcome a traumatic childhood and lived in hostels or with coaches after the loss of her mother and grandparents in 1991.

That year she had finished 12th at the Russian nationals but, after joining coach Galina Zmievskaya, took silver at the 1993 European Championships followed by gold at the Worlds.

After repeating her silver medal at the Europeans, again behind France's Surya Bonaly, she was not fancied to take gold on the biggest stage of all.

The youngster trailed only Kerrigan after the short program, and then needed pain-killing injections after colliding with another skater in practice the day before the free skate.

Despite that, she produced a wonderfully graceful performance to snatch gold from Kerrigan and claim her country's first Olympic title.

Salt Lake City 2002 - Jill Bakken and Vonetta Flowers, bobsleigh

Ahead of Salt Lake City 2002, USA had not won a bobsleigh medal in 46 years.

Coming into the race, Jill Bakken and Vonetta Flowers were not even their nation's leading challengers with Jean Racine and Gea Johnson carrying that tag.

Switzerland boasted the reigning world champions in Francoise Burdet and Katharina Sutter, while both German crews were expected to be in contention for top spot.

But no one could live with the American underdogs who were a massive 0.29 clear after the first run, and went quickest again on the second to take victory ahead of Germany's Sandra Kiriasis and Ulrike Holzner.

The win was even more historic as Flowers became the first African American gold medallist at the Olympic Winter Games, having previously suffered heartbreak as a sprinter unable to make the Summer Olympics.

Just to make the achievement even more impressive, the pair had only been training together for a matter of weeks before taking on and beating the world.