LONDON -- Eight years ago in Athens, Tonya Verbeek felt she had lost gold. She was younger then, a "little bit of a brat," in her words. "Oh, I wanted it all," she said, and when she lost the 55-kilogram women's wrestling final, she was bummed, devastated, upset.

Here in London, Verbeek had a different perspective. She was wiser now, 34 years old, almost certainly ending her Olympic career. Oh, she still wanted it all -- a gold to go with that silver and the bronze she got four years ago in Beijing. But this time, when she ran into the same brick wall in the final, three-time Olympic champion Saori Yoshida of Japan, she didn't feel like a failure.

"I stepped off that mat," she said, "feeling like I won silver.''

Experience the Olympics for long enough, and you understand everything is relative. Success is not defined strictly by medals -- for nations as well as individuals. You come. You compete. You see where you stack up. But what it means depends on the circumstances.

By one measure, these Games were a disappointment for Canada. One gold? That's the lowest total since 1976, when Canada was shut out on home soil in Montreal, and that's a poor return on millions of dollars of real money that was spent to develop these athletes -- some of it government money. The Own the Podium program is missing something -- the "w." Canadians were on the podium, but they didn't own it. With five silvers and 12 bronzes, you might call this the Bronze Age.

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But by another measure, these Games about met expectations. Canada won 18 medals, finishing 13th in the overall count. The Canadian Olympic Committee's goal was "Top 12 in 2012," but that was considered ambitious before the Games began. The totals are in line with history. Canada won 18 medals and finished 14th four years ago in Beijing. It won exactly three golds in five of the previous six Summer Games, so one isn't a big drop-off. It averaged 16.8 medals over the previous five Summer Games, so 18 ain't bad.

So much of this comes down to population and priorities and resources, and Canada is a relatively small nation of 35-million people who live in a cold climate and value winter sports most. Canada won 14 gold medals at the 2010 Winter Games, more than any other nation. Canada won 26 medals overall, third-most. Would you rather have had Sidney Crosby score the winner in ice hockey in Vancouver or the winner in field hockey in London?

"I'm not looking at medal tables," said triathlete Simon Whitfield, the Canadian flag-bearer at the Opening Ceremony. "I'm not trying to compare Canada to the Chinese. That's a fool's game. They're not going to beat us at hockey. I don't think they sit around and look at the hockey going, 'Man, those Canadians, I can't believe they beat us.' "

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For Canada's Olympians at London 2010, success shouldn't only be measured by medals