Olympics 2012: Usain Bolt's Gold Medal Run Draws Biggest Canadian Olympic TV Audience

TORONTO – Usain Bolt’s 100 meters gold medal sprint drew the biggest Canadian Olympic audience to date from the London 2012 Games.

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Around 6.2 million Canadians – the same size audience that tunes into the Oscars or the Super Bowl on TV sets here - watched Bolt win gold on Sunday night, according to Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium.

Bolt’s winning race was in line with the biggest non-hockey audiences of the Vancouver 2010 Games, and has allowed the Canadian broadcast consortium to continue outpacing the domestic audience for the Beijing 2008 Summer Games.

Other crowd-pullers from London include the Canadian womens’ soccer team, which lost a squeaker to Team USA on Monday night during the semi-final round.

And an average of 2.1 million viewers tuned in as Rosie MacLennan won Canada’s first gold medal of the 2012 Games during the women’s trampoline final.

Elsewhere, swimming continues to be the most popular Olympic event for Canadian TV viewers, as audiences followed Michael Phelps’ medal grab in London, followed closely by track and field.