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It was another newsy day at the Milano Cortina Olympics. And much of the news was not good for Canada.
Just as we were about to publish this newsletter, the Canadian men’s hockey team announced that injured star Brayden Point will not be able to play in Italy. The Tampa Bay Lightning centre, who has been out of action since Jan. 12, will be replaced by Seth Jarvis of the Carolina Hurricanes.
Point was one of the original six players named to the Canadian roster last June. Jarvis played for Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off last February but did not make the cut for the Olympics.
Earlier today, the Canadian women’s hockey team’s opening game against Finland was postponed due to more than a dozen Finnish players being struck with the norovirus. The contest was rescheduled for a week from today.
Canada, the defending Olympic champion, will now open on Saturday against Switzerland. The world-champion United States started out with a 5-1 win over Czechia today.
Meanwhile, Canadian snowboard star Mark McMorris announced he was pulling out of the men’s big air event after hitting his head in a crash during training yesterday. But he hopes to still compete in the slopestyle, where he’s won three consecutive Olympic bronze medals. That event begins in 11 days.
With McMorris out, Frank Jobin was the only Canadian to qualify for the 12-man final in the big air, placing sixth in qualifying. 18-year-old Eli Bouchard, the youngest member of the Canadian Olympic team, just missed the cut in 14th. Cam Spalding, the reigning slopestyle World Cup champion, finished 22nd. The final goes Saturday.
Now for some good news. Canada’s Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant improved to 3-0 in mixed doubles curling with a pair of impressive wins today. They defeated back-to-back Olympic medallist Norway 6-3 before stunning reigning Olympic and world champions Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner of host Italy 7-2.
The Italians made several errors early on and gave up five points in the first end. They shook hands after just six of the scheduled eight frames, accepting a rare defeat after they went a combined 22-0 at the 2022 Olympics and the 2025 world championship.
Looking ahead to Friday, figure skating competition lifts off with the team event and Canada faces the U.S. in mixed doubles curling before the opening ceremony ushers in the official beginning of the Games.
We’ll start our daily viewing guide there, then look at the Canadians to watch on Friday.
What to expect from the opening ceremony
Though competition has been going on since Wednesday, the Games officially begin with the opening ceremony on Friday at 2 p.m. ET. You can watch it live on the CBC TV network and CBC Gem, beginning with the pre-show at 1:30 p.m. ET.
The festivities are expected to last about three hours and will include performances by two of the greatest singers of all time: American pop icon Mariah Carey and world-renowned Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.
The main ceremony is being held at the storied San Siro soccer stadium in Milan. But, with competition venues scattered over hundreds of kilometres in northern Italy (these are the most spread-out Winter Olympics ever), simultaneous celebrations will take place in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Predazzo and Livigno so that all athletes have a chance to participate in the parade of nations.
Canada’s flag-bearers for the parade are moguls skier Mikaël Kingsbury and ski cross racer Marielle Thompson. They’re both in Livigno, a mountainous ski-resort town located about a four-hour drive northeast of Milan. Kingsbury and Thompson are each competing in their fourth Olympics and have won multiple medals, including one gold apiece.
Other national flag-bearers include Edmonton Oilers star Leon Draisaitl (Germany) and fellow NHLers David Pastrnak of the Boston Bruins (Czechia) and Nino Niederreiter of the Winnipeg Jets (Switzerland).
Canadians to watch on Friday
Figure skating: Canada in the team event
Canada did not win a figure skating medal at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, ending a podium streak that began in 1984. But it came close in the relatively new team event, finishing fourth behind the United States, Japan and Russia.
The Russians actually won the competition but were later demoted to the bronze after being stripped of the points earned by 15-year-old star Kamila Valieva due to her testing positive for a banned drug. Canada asked for the Russian team to be disqualified completely, rather than just Valieva’s scores being erased, which would have resulted in Canada getting the bronze. But its appeal was denied.
Fast-forward four years and Russians, who had to compete as “neutral” athletes in 2022 as punishment for their country’s massive state-orchestrated doping scheme, are now barred from all team events because of the invasion of Ukraine shortly after the Beijing Games. With the Russians out of the picture, Canada was expected to contend for a bronze in the team figure skating event (the U.S. and Japan remain ahead of the pack).
However, Canada’s medal hopes took a big hit on Monday when 2024 pairs world champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps withdrew from the team event due to an unspecified injury suffered by Stellato-Dudek during training in Quebec. Replacing them in Canada’s pairs slot are Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud, who beat Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps at the national championships last month but have never won a medal at the world championships.
Canada should still do well in the ice dance segment with Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, who have won a medal at four of the last five world championships. But the singles are a concern with Madeline Schizas having never cracked the top 10 at the worlds or the Olympics and Stephen Gogolev having no Olympic or worlds experience at all. Schizas, though, really stepped up in the team event in 2022, placing third in both her short and free skates to put Canada in medal contention.
Ten countries are competing in the team event. They all take part in the short/rhythm programs for each of the four disciplines (men’s, women’s, pairs and ice dance). The top finisher in each program gets 10 points, second place gets 9, and so on down to one point for last place. The points for all four disciplines are tallied up, and only the top five countries advance to the free skates to decide the medals.
The action begins Friday with the rhythm dance at 3:55 a.m. ET, followed by the pairs short at 5:35 a.m. ET and the women’s short 7:35 a.m. ET. The men’s short and free dance are on Saturday, and the competition concludes Sunday.
Mixed doubles curling: Canada vs. the United States
After beating two-thirds of the 2022 Olympic podium today, Peterman and Gallant are tied for first place in the round robin with Great Britain’s Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat, who are also 3-0. The Canadians now face another tough opponent in Americans Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin, who at 2-0 are the only other unbeaten team in the tournament. The game is at 4:05 a.m. ET,
“Every win is huge here because I think there’s so many evenly ranked teams,” Gallant said. “I think it’s going to be a dogfight, especially getting towards the playoffs. It’s going to be very difficult.”
Defending champion Italy (1-1) will try to bounce back from its ugly loss to Canada when it meets fourth-place Switzerland (2-1) in the early draw and Estonia (1-2) later.
How to watch
Along with TV broadcasts on CBC and its partner networks Sportsnet and TSN, you can stream all of the action from the Milano-Cortina Games live and on demand exclusively at CBC Gem.
The app is free to download and watch, but you’ll need to create an account. So, if you haven’t already, make sure to take care of that right away. You can also access Gem on your desktop web browser at gem.cbc.ca.
For a full listing of what’s on each day, see the full CBC Olympic streaming schedule.
Also, be sure to visit CBC’s Milano-Cortina Olympics website for news, in-depth features, event schedules, athlete bios and on-demand highlights of the biggest moments and events. You can personalize your Olympics feed to feature your favourite sports, and get daily emails with news and schedules related to your choices.
Here’s more on all the ways you can follow the Olympics with CBC.
Something else to check out
The Game, CBC’s nightly Olympic trivia contest, is back. Test your sports knowledge for your chance to win prizes, including a trip to Mexico. Pre-register now and practice with the demo game so you’re ready when the real competition kicks off Feb 6.