White House spokesman Robert Gibbs came to his daily on-camera briefing wearing a red-and-white Canadian ice hockey jersey - the result of not one, but two losing bets on the US-Canadian rivalry at the recent Winter Olympics.

The first wager was on the women's gold medal game. Canada won.

Then it was the men's contest, and Mr Gibbs went double-or-nothing with Dimitri Soudas, who is the spokesman for Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. It was gold again for Canada.

The White House coup was shortlived. Mr Gibbs soon yanked off the Canadian jersey to reveal a USA one underneath.