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That was fast.
Canada’s first medal of the Milano-Cortina Winter Games came quickly as long track speed skater Valérie Maltais earned a bronze in the women’s 3,000 metres on Day 1.
For Maltais, though, it was a long time coming. This is the first individual Olympic medal for the 35-year-old, who started her career as a short tracker and is now competing in her fifth Games.
While that was Canada’s only medal today, there were other notable performances.
In figure skating, unheralded Olympic rookie Stephen Gogolev delivered a clutch third-place result in the men’s short segment of the team event to send Canada through to the final round.
On the slopes, struggling Jack Crawford placed an encouraging ninth in the men’s downhill while Cam Alexander was 14th as Switzerland’s Franjo von Allmen won the very first gold of the Games. Ski jumper Abi Strate finished 11th in the women’s normal hill, while snowboarder Frank Jobin was seventh in the men’s big air final with a dislocated shoulder. Freestyle skiers Megan Oldham and Naomi Urness advanced to Monday’s women’s slopestyle final, placing seventh and eighth in qualifying.
Meanwhile, it was another rough day for Canada’s mixed doubles curlers. Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant lost to Great Britain and Estonia to fall to 3-3 after starting the tournament 3-0.
But the day ended on a high note for Canada as the defending Olympic champion women’s hockey team won their opening game 4-0 over Switzerland. The Canadians, whose scheduled opener against Finland on Thursday was postponed a week due to a norovirus outbreak among the Finns, outshot the Swiss 55-6.
Looking ahead to (Super Bowl) Sunday, Canadians are in the same boat as the New England Patriots as they’ll need to pull off an upset to get their hands on the hardware. But there are some hopes for a medal, and we’ll start our daily viewing guide there. Plus, a few more things to watch on Day 2, including Lindsey Vonn’s attempt to write a storybook ending in the women’s downhill.
Canadian medal chances on Sunday
Here are the top three, in chronological order:
Snowboarding: 4 Canadians in the parallel giant slalom (finals at 8:26 a.m. ET)
None of Canada’s riders are expected to win a medal. But it’s not out of the question.
Starting with the women, Kaylie Buck earned a silver in December at a different venue in Italy for her first World Cup medal, while Aurélie Moisan won back-to-back junior world titles in 2024 and ’25. On the men’s side, Arnaud Gaudet picked up a silver last month for his first World Cup medal, while Ben Heldman was the junior world champ in 2022.
Qualifying begins at 3 a.m. ET, and the fastest 16 men and 16 women advance to their head-to-head elimination brackets, starting at 7 a.m. ET. The women’s finals go at 8:26 a.m. ET, and the men’s at 8:36 a.m. ET.
Women’s favourite Ester Ledecka of Czechia can become the first snowboarder to win three consecutive Olympic golds in the same individual event.
Speed skating: Ted-Jan Bloemen in the men’s 5,000m at 10 a.m. ET
The Dutch-born Bloemen took silver in this distance at the 2018 Olympics in South Korea, where he won the 10,000m gold. He captured the 5,000m world title in 2020 but fell to 10th at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing and was seventh at last year’s world championships.
Does the 39-year-old have enough juice left for another run at the podium? Maybe. Three months ago in Calgary, he picked up a bronze in a World Cup 5,000m race with the second-fastest time of his career.
Figure skating: Canada in the final round of the team event (last skates at 3:55 p.m. ET)
Hats off to 21-year-old Stephen Gogolev, who in the first Olympic skate of his life today placed a surprising third in the men’s short program to clinch Canada a spot in the five-team final round. In fact, Gogolev moved the Canadians up one spot to fourth, putting them in position to contend for a medal.
And flowers as well for Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha. Canada’s No. 2 ice dance duo stepped in for Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier in the free dance segment today and placed third — one spot higher than the top Canadian tandem did in the opening round.
This kept Canada in fourth spot overall heading into the final three segments. With 35 points, the Canadians are three ahead of fifth-place Georgia (32) and can threaten Italy (37) for the bronze. The United States has a commanding lead with 44, followed by Japan (39), which got a boost when Yuma Kagiyama upset American superstar Ilia Malinin in the men’s short skate.
The competition continues with the pairs free skate at 1:30 p.m. ET, the women’s free at 2:45 p.m. ET and, finally, the men’s free at 3:55 p.m. ET. Canada’s Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud were fourth in the pairs short and Madeline Schizas was sixth in the women’s short.
Other stuff to watch Sunday
Alpine skiing: Lindsey Vonn in the women’s downhill at 5:30 a.m. ET
The American star completed her second successful practice run today in Cortina d’Ampezzo and appears ready to race just a little more than a week after tearing an ACL when she crashed during her final competition before the Olympics.
Skiing with a brace on her injured left knee, the 41-year-old Vonn clocked the third-fastest time in the final training session. More than half the field did not participate, though, including Canadians Val Grenier and Cassidy Gray.
Vonn, who won Olympic downhill gold at the 2010 Vancouver Games, owned the all-time record for women’s alpine World Cup wins when she walked away from the sport in 2019, her body cooked from countless injuries over the years. But, equipped with a new titanium-infused right knee, she returned in 2024 and this season re-established herself as a top contender for Olympic gold in Cortina, where she’s won a record 12 World Cup races. Before her crash in Switzerland on Jan. 30, Vonn had reached the podium in seven of eight starts this season, including a pair of downhill victories to become the oldest skier ever to win an alpine World Cup race.
Other skiers to watch include downhill world champion Breezy Johnson of the U.S. and Italians Sofia Goggia and Federica Brignone. Goggia won Olympic downhill gold in 2018, while Brignone, the reigning World Cup downhill and overall champion, just recently returned from a broken leg suffered at the Italian championships last April.
Grenier is the top Canadian. Her best shot at the podium will come in the giant slalom, but the 29-year-old’s lone World Cup downhill medal (a bronze) came in Cortina in 2024. Gray has not won a medal in her four seasons on the World Cup tour.
For more on Vonn’s quest for sports immortality and other international athletes to watch on Sunday, here’s CBC Sports contributor Richard Deitsch.
Mixed doubles curling: 2 big games for Canada
They’re all big now for Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant, who since defeating reigning Olympic and world champion Italy on Thursday to improve to 3-0 have lost three straight games to fall into a fifth-place tie with Switzerland with three games left in the round robin. Only the top four advance to the medal rounds.
On Sunday, the Canadians start out with a critical matchup against fourth-place Sweden (4-3) at 8:35 a.m. ET before facing weaker South Korea at 1:05 p.m. ET. The Koreans are 1-5, tied with Czechia for last place in the 10-team tournament, but their lone win came against the second-place United States.
First-place Great Britain (7-0) has clinched a playoff spot, while the U.S. and Italy (both 4-2) sit just ahead of the Swedes.
Snowboarding: Canada’s Laurie Blouin in women’s big air qualifying at 1:30 p.m. ET
Blouin, 29, won Olympic silver in the slopestyle event in 2018 in South Korea but has been less successful in the big air, finishing 12th in 2018 and eighth in 2022. However, she captured big air gold at the 2019 Winter X Games and the 2021 world championships. Last month, Blouin won a slopestyle event in Aspen, Colo., for her first World Cup victory in four years.
The other Canadian in this event is 21-year-old Juliette Pelchat, who placed a career-best fourth in a World Cup big air competition at Colorado’s Steamboat resort in December.
Meanwhile, the injury bug continues to bite Canada’s snowboarders. Along with Frank Jobin’s dislocated shoulder, star rider Mark McMorris pulled out of the men’s big air earlier this week after hitting his head in a crash during practice. And today, two-time snowboard cross bronze medallist Meryeta O’Dine was ruled out of the Games after fracturing her ankle. “I’m heartbroken,” said O’Dine, who had battled back from another ankle fracture she suffered in November. “But I am proud of the work I put in this year to get here.”
How to watch the Olympics
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 on the free CBC Gem app. 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.