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Day 14 of the Milano-Cortina Winter Games is a huge one for Canada.
The country will of course be glued to the men’s hockey team’s semifinal against Finland. But there’s also Rachel Homan’s women’s curling semi, while flag-bearer Marielle Thompson goes for her third Olympic medal in ski cross. Plus, Canada has two more shots at gold in short-track speed skating, where Courtney Sarault and Steven Dubois can both tie Canadian medal records.
Let’s get into all that and more in our daily viewing guide.
Canadians to watch on Friday
In chronological order:
Freestyle skiing: Marielle Thompson in women’s ski cross (final at 7:10 a.m. ET)
Canada’s greatest ski cross racer won Olympic gold in 2014 and took silver in 2022 while adding a world championship in 2019. Last winter, Thompson was in the hunt for her second consecutive World Cup title and the fifth of her career when she suffered a season-ending injury to her right knee — the same one she wrecked ahead of the last two Winter Games. It took her a while to regain her form, but the 33-year-old returned to the podium with a pair of World Cup bronze medals last month and carried the Canadian flag at the Olympic opening ceremony with moguls star Mikael Kingsbury.
Canada has two other skiers in this event. Hannah Schmidt ranks ninth in the World Cup standings and Britt Phelan is 12th. Neither has won a medal this season.
The favourite is Sweden’s Sandra Naeslund, who captured Olympic gold in 2022, grabbed her third world title the following year and won an incredible 17 consecutive World Cup events from December 2021 to February 2023. Naeslund’s last two seasons were cut short by leg injuries (part of the job, it seems, in this highly hazardous sport) but the 29-year-old roared back this season with five wins in the first six World Cup events. Naeslund missed the podium in her last three starts before the Olympics, but it’s possible she was just playing it safe.
The competition begins at 4 a.m. ET with a time trial for seeding. The four-skier elimination races start at 6 a.m. ET and culminate with the final at 7:10 a.m. ET
Women’s curling: Canada vs. Sweden in the semifinals at 8:05 a.m. ET
You have to feel for Rachel Homan. The back-to-back world champion looks like she has the weight of the world on her out there, not wanting to come home empty-handed again after missing the playoffs at each of the last two Olympics.
A 1-3 start put Homan’s Canadian team in grave danger of another early exit, but they responded with four straight wins to set up today’s do-or-die round-robin finale against South Korea (also 5-3) for the final playoff spot. And they delivered again, beating the Koreans 10-7 to give their skip a shot at her first Olympic medal after so much disappointment. You could see the relief (and the stress, still there) on Homan’s face as she fought off tears after nailing the game-winning hit in the final end.
Canada will face first-place Sweden (7-2), who they beat 8-6 in the round robin. The other semifinal features the United States and Switzerland, who both defeated Canada en route to finishing 6-3.
The winners will square off for the gold on Sunday, and the losers play for the bronze on Saturday.
The men’s bronze game is on Friday. It’s Norway vs. Switzerland at 1:05 p.m. ET.
After defeating South Korea to secure a spot in the women’s curling semifinals at Milano Cortina 2026, Rachel Homan says her team is ready to compete for an Olympic medal.
Speed skating: Ivanie Blondin in the women’s 1,500m at 10:30 a.m. ET
After winning her second straight Olympic gold in the team pursuit with Isabelle Weidemann and Valérie Maltais on Tuesday, Blondin is a longshot for the podium in the individual 1,500m, where she finished eighth at last year’s world championships. But she did earn a bronze at a World Cup meet in the Netherlands in December for her first medal in this distance since 2020.
Maltais and Béatrice Lamarche are the other Canadians in this race, but are not expected to contend. The favourite is Japan’s Miho Takagi, while Dutch star Femke Kok goes for her third medal of the Games after winning gold in the 500m and silver in the 1,000.
Men’s hockey: Canada vs. Finland semifinal at 10:40 a.m. ET
As you know, the top-ranked Canadians just narrowly avoided a seismic upset against Czechia in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, thanks to heroic efforts in crunch time by Nick Suzuki, Jordan Binnington and, in overtime, Mitch Marner. Finland also pulled a rabbit out of the hat, rallying from two goals down with about six minutes left to stun Switzerland on Artturi Lehkonen’s OT winner.
Canada is heavily favoured to win this game, but it could be without captain Sidney Crosby after he left Wednesday’s game in the second period with an apparent knee injury. It seemed like Crosby could be lost for the Games, but Canadian head coach Jon Cooper was surprisingly optimistic today, saying Crosby is “by no means ruled out of the tournament.” However, Cooper indicated it was unclear whether Crosby would play on Friday, and TSN reported it’s “unlikely” that the captain will suit up.
If Crosby is out, Suzuki would likely take over as the No. 3 centre. He scored the tying goal with 3½ minutes left in regulation against the Czechs with an incredible solo effort to set up his own tip-in.
The other semifinal matchup is the U.S. vs. Slovakia at 3:10 p.m. ET. The second-seeded Americans are even bigger favourites than Canada, but they just scraped by Sweden on an overtime goal by Quinn Hughes, while the Slovaks looked strong in a 6-2 rout of Germany.
The gold-medal game is on Sunday at 8:10 a.m. ET.
Freestyle skiing: Brendan Mackay in the men’s halfpipe (final at 1:30 p.m. ET)
Mackay, tops among the three Canadians in this event, is an outside medal contender. The 28-year-old captured the world title in 2023 and won a gold and a silver on the World Cup circuit last season. But he finished seventh at last year’s worlds and was 14th in each of his two World Cup starts this season.
New Zealand’s Finley Melville Ives, the 19-year-old reigning world champion, is the favourite over Americans Alex Ferreira and Nick Goepper.
Due to weather-related postponements, the qualifying and medal rounds will all be completed in one day. Qualifying starts at 4:30 a.m. ET and consists of two runs, with the top 12 skiers advancing to the three-run final at 1:30 p.m. ET.
Short track: Canada in the men’s relay final at 3:30 p.m. ET, Courtney Sarault in the women’s 1,500m (final at 4:07 p.m. ET)
Will Dandjinou, Steven Dubois, Felix Roussel and Maxime Laoun are expected to skate for Canada in the men’s relay after winning the world title last year. Canada also won this event at the 2022 Olympics, where Dubois helped teammate Charles Hamelin capture his Canadian record-tying sixth career Winter Olympic medal in his last Olympic race.
Dubois can match Hamelin with his sixth medal after winning his first individual gold on Wednesday in the 500m. Dandjinou, meanwhile, looks to end his rough Games on a high note after the back-to-back World Tour overall champion shockingly missed the podium in all three solo events, though he did win a silver in the mixed relay.
Canada will face South Korea, the Netherlands and Italy in the final.
In the women’s 1,500m, Sarault goes for her fifth medal of the Games, which would tie long track skater Cindy Klassen’s 20-year-old Canadian record for a single Olympics — Winter or Summer. Sarault has reached the podium in every event she’s skated so far, grabbing silver in the 1,000m and the mixed relay and bronze in the 500m and the women’s relay. In her four 1,500m starts on the World Tour this season, the women’s overall champ won a gold, a silver and a bronze.
Kim Boutin won her sixth career medal in yesterday’s women’s relay, tying Klassen and Hamelin for the most all-time by a Canadian in the Winter Games. But it’s unlikely she passes them in what is probably the final Olympic event of her career.
The skater to beat is Xandra Velzeboer of the Netherlands, who can complete a sweep of the three women’s solo events.
Racing begins with the quarterfinals at 2:15 p.m. ET and continues with the semis at 3:02 p.m. ET before the final at 4:07 p.m. ET.
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