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The Winter Olympics in northern Italy officially open on Feb. 6, and competition begins on Feb. 4 — just 29 days from now. Here are a few things Canadians fans can look forward to:
Hockey: NHL stars and Canada-U.S. battles
To be honest, the last two Winter Olympics just weren’t the same without NHL players. But the world’s best (minus the Russians) are back for the first time since 2014, and it’ll be great to see superstars like Canada’s Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon, Americans Auston Matthews and Quinn Hughes and Germany’s Leon Draisaitl representing their country in the Olympics for the first time while Canadian captain Sidney Crosby goes for his third gold medal.
With Russia banned from all team events and other traditional European hockey powers like Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic not looking as strong these days, it’s shaping up as another showdown between Canada and the United States for the gold. We got a taste at last year’s unexpectedly electric 4 Nations Face-Off, where the cross-border rivals dropped the gloves three times in the first nine seconds of their round-robin matchup in Montreal and McDavid delivered Canada the title with his overtime goal to end a thrilling final in Boston.
The 25-player roster announced the NHL’s return to the Olympics, with new and old faces coming to the team. The CBC’s Matt Cullen and Chris Cuthbert, along with two-time Olympic gold medallist and Stanley Cup winner Chris Pronger, share more on the announcement.
It’ll also be great to talk about actual hockey instead of construction and geometry. The NHL and its players have signed off on the slightly smaller ice surface at the new arena in Milan and, while the building clearly won’t be finished in time for the Games, organizers promise it’ll be ready enough to stage the games. We’ll find out more when a test event is held this weekend.
We can also expect another fiery Canada-U.S. clash for the women’s gold. The archrivals have met in six of their seven Olympic finals and 23 of 24 world-title games to date, and barring a massive upset they’ll square off for the gold again in Milan. Though the Canadians are the reigning Olympic champs, the world-champion Americans are favoured to unify the titles after sweeping this year’s four-game Rivalry Series by a combined score of 24-7.
Curling: Homan’s shot at redemption and Jacobs’ return
Canada is the world’s No. 1 producer of elite curlers. And yet, it has not won an Olympic men’s or women’s title since 2014, when Brad Jacobs and Jennifer Jones swept the golds in Sochi. In fact, Canada has managed just one medal in the four-player events since then — a bronze by Brad Gushue in 2022.
Rachel Homan’s struggles have been just as maddening. Despite being among the greatest skips of all time, she failed to reach the women’s playoffs in 2018 as the reigning world champion and did not advance in mixed doubles in 2022 with John Morris, who’d won gold four years earlier with Kaitlyn Lawes.
But Homan has taken her game to another level. She went undefeated at the last two Canadian championships and has won back-to-back world titles — each time defeating Swiss skip Silvana Tirinzoni, who captured four in a row before that. Look for them to meet in the final again in Sochi.
On the men’s side, Jacobs returns to the Olympics 12 years after his gold-medal victory with a new set of teammates. They include Brett Gallant, who’s doing double duty in Italy. He’ll also represent Canada in the mixed event with his wife, Jocelyn Peterman.
Figure skating: The Quad God and Canada’s top tandems
With an unmatched array of jumps in his bag, 21-year-old American star Ilia Malinin has taken his sport by storm. Undefeated in more than two years, he’s won back-to-back world titles and three straight golds at the prestigious Grand Prix Final. That includes his stunning performance at last month’s Final in Japan, where the Quad God landed an unprecedented seven four-rotation jumps, including his signature quad axel, to break his own world record for the highest free-skate score. Malinin’s first Olympic appearance will be must-see TV.
Canada did not win a figure skating medal in 2022, but it has two strong contenders in the partner events. The pairs duo of Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps will try to recapture the magic from their 2024 world-title victory, while ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier are eyeing their first Olympic medal after reaching the podium at four of the last five world championships.
Speed skating: The long and short of it
If you don’t know it already, remember the name Will Dandjinou. The 24-year-old Olympic rookie has a great chance to be Canada’s biggest star of these Games after becoming the best short track skater in the world over the last couple years. In 2024-25, Dandjinou won a global-high eight individual races on the World Tour to capture his first overall title before grabbing four medals at the world championships, highlighted by a gold in the 1,500m. This season, he repeated as the men’s overall champ by winning seven of his 12 solo races.
Canada, which is now the No. 1 short track country in the world, also boasts the reigning women’s overall champion in Courtney Sarault. She captured five individual golds on the four-stop World Tour this season and has won 11 medals (including relays) at the world championships. And don’t forget about Steven Dubois, a four-time world champ who won a medal of each colour at the 2022 Olympics.
In long track speed skating, the Canadian trio of Ivanie Blondin, Isabelle Weidemann and Valérie Maltais are back in contention to repeat as women’s team pursuit champions. After failing to reach the podium last season, they have a gold and two silvers so far this season and are ranked No. 1 on the World Cup tour. All three women will also be in the hunt for individual medals, led by Blondin in her signature mass start event.
On the men’s side, all eyes will be on young American star Jordan Stolz. He got his first taste of the Olympics in 2022 as a 17-year-old and is now poised to dominate after sweeping the 500m, 1,000m and 1,500m titles at the last two world championships and winning 13 of his 15 races so far this season. It’ll be interesting to see if Canadian veteran Laurent Dubreuil, a silver medallist in 2022 in the 1,000m, can bounce back from a rough start to the season.
Freestyle skiing: Kingsbury’s crowning moment?
At 33, Mikaël Kingsbury remains on top of his game. He won nine of his 16 World Cup starts last season to extend his all-time record to 99 victories while once again sweeping the men’s moguls and dual moguls Crystal Globes. But the GOAT has hinted that this could be his final Olympics.
Kingsbury, who won an Olympic moguls title in 2018 and took silver in 2014 and 2022, can go out with two gold medals now that the dual event has been added to the program. But he’ll have to get past his Japanese rival Ikuma Horishima, who won the dual at the world championships last year to deny Kingsbury’s bid for a fourth consecutive double. Horishima also took the season opener last month as Kingsbury sat out with a groin injury.
Kingsbury can get his 100th World Cup win this Friday night at Val St-Côme in his home province of Quebec. Here’s more on his delayed season debut.
Canada also has medal contenders in many of the other freestyle skiing and snowboard events. But keep a close eye on ski cross, where reigning World Cup champion Reece Howden is currently on a three-event winning streak that saw him break the all-time record for men’s World Cup victories, and four-time women’s World Cup champ Marielle Thompson is working her way back from a knee injury in hopes of adding to her 2014 Olympic gold and 2022 silver.
A Canadian is also the man to beat in snowboard cross, where 2022 Olympic men’s silver medallist Éliot Grondin is the reigning world champion and back-to-back World Cup title winner.
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