Team Canada 2023-2024 ice sports highlights
Team Canada feels at home on the ice, and it showed this season.
From world championship titles to historic firsts, and lots of podium finishes along the way, Canadian athletes wowed this winter. Before Team Canada fans turn their focus to Paris 2024 and the summer sports, let’s take a moment to recap some of the incredible achievements of Canada’s winter athletes this season.
Here are some of our favourite stories across the ice sports:
Figure Skating
It was a special season for Canadian figure skaters with the 2024 ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Montreal. Team Canada stepped up in a big way, led by the inspiring performances of pairs team Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps, who became world champions in front of a jubilant hometown crowd.
At age 40, Stellato-Dudek made history as the oldest woman ever to win a world title in figure skating. The pair scored a personal best of 221.56 to defeat the defending world champions from Japan.
It was the perfect topper to a strong and steady season for Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps. The pair kicked things off with three straight wins, including two Grand Prix gold medals at Skate Canada International and Cup of China. They won bronze at the Grand Prix Final and after winning their second straight national title, the pair took gold at the ISU Four Continents Championships.
They weren’t the only Canadians that the crowd cheered to the podium. Ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier scored a personal best of 219.68 to take the silver medal. It was a meaningful step up the podium for Gilles and Poirier, who won bronze medals in both 2021 and 2023. They made that rise by finishing first in the free dance.
Montreal-based ice dancers Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha are Canada’s bright future in the discipline. Still just 23 and 24, they posted personal bests in both phases of the competition to finish fifth. This is a significant leap up the leaderboard from their last appearance at the worlds, an 11th place finish in 2022. Even more remarkable, they did it after missing weeks of training and competition while Lajoie recovered from a concussion.
Curling
It was a golden finale to the season for Team Canada at the 2024 World Women’s Curling Championship. After a week of spectacular play, the Canadian squad of Rachel Homan, Tracy Fleury, Emma Miskew, Sarah Wilkes and Rachel Brown captured the world title in front of a supportive home crowd in Sydney, Nova Scotia.
The Canadians moved through the preliminary round with an intimidating record of 11 wins and just one loss. Homan and company defeated Switzerland 7-5 in the final, marking the first world title for Canada since 2018. It also ended the streak of four consecutive world championship wins by Switzerland.
On the men’s side, the Canadian team comprised of skip Brad Gushue, vice-skip Mark Nichols, second E.J. Harnden, lead Geoff Walker, and alternate Kyle Doering fought valiantly to a third consecutive silver medal at the 2024 World Men’s Curling Championship.
Canada finished the tournament with a record of 10-2, falling to Sweden’s Niklas Edin 6-5 in the final, which took place in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.
Skeleton/Bobsleigh
In February, 19-year-old Hallie Clarke shocked everyone, including herself, by becoming the new world champion in women’s skeleton. Despite being crowned the 2023 U20 World Champion at the same track in Winterberg, Germany, few expected such a young athlete to prevail. The Canadian teen is the youngest ever to win the women’s world skeleton title.
The last time Canada celebrated a world championship title in women’s skeleton was Michelle Kelly’s win in 2003.
Her teammate Mirela Rahneva took home one gold and one bronze medal on the IBSF World Cup circuit this season.
It was a tougher season for the Canadian bobsleigh team, but there was a spark of promise at the World Cup season finale in Lake Placid where Cynthia Appiah slid to a bronze medal in the women’s monobob.
Long Track Speed Skating
Canadian long track speed skaters shone on the Olympic Oval in Calgary as they had the opportunity to compete at home for the pinnacle of their season, the 2024 ISU World Single Distances Championships. Team Canada achieved its best-ever performance, winning 10 medals.
Long distance specialist Ted-Jan Bloemen won silver in the men’s 10,000m. At 37 years old, Bloemen stepped onto the podium of the event for the second consecutive year. He also finished second in the overall World Cup standings for the 5000m/10,000m. Teammate Graeme Fish, 11 years his junior, claimed the bronze medal to return to the world championship podium for the first time since 2020.
In the mass start events, Ivanie Blondin clinched the silver medal in the women’s world championship race, while Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu did the same on the men’s side. Blondin, a regular on the podium in this event, also finished second in the overall World Cup standings behind only teammate Valérie Maltais. Gélinas-Beaulieu earned his first individual medal at the worlds since 2020.
Blondin and Maltais, along with Isabelle Weidemann, won world championship silver in the women’s team pursuit. Gélinas-Beaulieu joined Connor Howe and Hayden Mayeur to win bronze in the men’s team pursuit.
Weidemann had made the strategic decision to skip two stages of the ISU World Cup in December 2023 to focus on her preparation for the worlds and it paid off as she won silver in the women’s 3000m for her first individual medal at the World Single Distances Championships.
Sprint star Laurent Dubreuil took home the silver medal in the men’s 500m at the World Single Distances Championships after finishing second in the overall World Cup standings for the distance. He went on to claim bronze at the ISU World Sprint Championships.
Canada also won world championship gold in both the men’s and women’s team sprint events which are not part of the Olympic program.
Short Track Speed Skating
Once again this season, Canadian short track speed skaters left their mark on the international stage.
A newer name to watch is undoubtedly William Dandjinou, who had a breakthrough season. Heading into it, he had never stepped onto a World Cup podium in an individual event. At the end, he finished third in the men’s overall World Cup standings and was first in the 1500m standings. He established himself among the top skaters on the circuit, despite missing the last stage due to injury. Dandjinou confirmed his status as an athlete to be reckoned by clinching the gold medal in the 1000m at the ISU Short Track Speed Skating World Championships.
Kim Boutin also stood atop the podium at the world championships, winning gold in the women’s 500m. The 29-year-old, who first competed at the worlds in 2015 and has since won more than a dozen medals, became a world champion for the very first time. Boutin had not competed internationally in the first half of the season in order to focus on her studies.
After finishing atop the overall World Cup standings in the men’s 500m, Jordan Pierre-Gilles claimed the bronze medal in the distance, marking his first individual world championship podium in his career.
Steven Dubois and Félix Roussel made it an all-Canadian top-three in the 500m World Cup standings as they finished second and third, respectively. Dubois’ versatility and consistency on the circuit saw him finish second in the men’s overall World Cup standings, just missing the Crystal Globe, and he also finished second in the 1000m standings.
Canada’s medal haul at the worlds was completed by a bronze medal in the women’s 3000m relay by Danaé Blais, Kim Boutin, Rikki Doak, Renee Marie Steenge, and Courtney Sarault.
On the men’s side, Canadians topped the World Cup standings in the 5000m relay.
