It could be historic year for Canadians at the 2010 Winter Olympics

Just four more sleeps until the opening of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

And one Olympic expert has said Canada has a shot of winning more medals than any other country this year.

MacLean's Olympic reporter, Jonathan Gatehouse, has a 94 per cent accuracy rate when it comes to predicting winners at the Games.

He said Canada should come close to its goal of winning 30 medals. In fact, he has predicted Canada will capture 27, including five gold ones.

"Canada's never been at the tops of the standings. We were third in Turin. We're likely to be [at] least third - if not second or first this time around."

Gatehouse added the $100-million spent on the best coaches and equipment for Canadian athletes should pay off.  

"We have a strong possibility of maybe even sweeping the podium in ski cross in the men's side. If all the things fall into place, you could see medals in a whole bunch of different sports, including figure skating and of course hockey."

During the Torino games, Gatehouse predicted Germany would win 28 medals and their athletes ended up with 29.

This is the third time Canada has hosted the Olympics (Montreal hosted the Summer Games in '76 and Calgary hosted the Winter Games in '88).

Canada is the only nation to have hosted an Olympics and not won gold at its own Games.