Weekend Roundup: Canadian speed skaters win 10 medals at short track worlds, 4 medals at long track worlds
Team Canada athletes had an incredible weekend as several world championships were in the spotlight.
The speed skaters led the charge, collecting 10 medals—including six gold—at the ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Championships while their long track compatriots stood on four podiums at the ISU World Single Distances Championships. Plus, Team Homan had a successful kick off to their campaign at the World Women’s Curling Championship.
Back at home, the Canadian ski cross squad delighted the fans in Craigleith, Ontario with three double podiums.
Read on for the big headlines from a busy weekend.
Short Track Speed Skating: Canada claims six gold, four silver at world championships
Canada had one of its best showings ever at the 2025 ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Championships in Beijing, concluding the weekend with six world titles and a total of 10 medals across all nine events. It is the country’s largest medal haul since they reached the podium 10 times in 1996, while their six gold medals were the most since 1994, when Canadians won seven.
READ: Canada claims four medals at Short Track World Championships
READ: Canada adds three golds, three silvers on Sunday at ISU World Short Track Championships
Canada won gold in all four men’s events. This season’s overall Crystal Globe champion, William Dandjinou, secured his second career world title, taking the victory in the 1500m. In the same arena where he won three Olympic gold medals during Beijing 2022, Steven Dubois earned his first world title in the 500m. Both men shared the podium in the 1000m, with Dubois taking the gold by the smallest of margins over Dandjinou. They joined forces with Félix Roussel and Maxime Laoun to dominate the final of the men’s 5000m relay, leading the 45-lap race from start to finish.
“This is all pretty crazy, there are really no other words,” said Dubois. “We were hoping for some good results, and we knew we had a shot in every distance, but for us to win literally everything we touched on the ice this weekend is surreal. We are the strongest team, and we showed it. It feels good to end the year on such a good note.”
The lone gold in the women’s events came in the 3000m relay by Kim Boutin, Florence Brunelle, Rikki Doak, and Courtney Sarault. They overtook Poland with three laps remaining. Sarault earned a pair of silver medals in the 1000m and 1500m to bring her career total to five individual world championship podiums. Doak won her first career world championship medal, taking silver in the 500m.
Canada swept the relay events by also taking gold in the 2000m mixed relay. Brunelle, Boutin, Dubois, and Dandjinou raced in the final and earned Canada’s first world championship medal in the event since it was added to the program in 2023.
Long Track Speed Skating: Blondin shines with a three-medal weekend
Canada left its mark at the ISU World Speed Skating Single Distances Championships in Hamar, Norway, securing four medals.
Ivanie Blondin jumped onto the podium for the third time over the weekend after claiming silver in the women’s mass start final. It is her eighth career world championship medal in the event. The only other individual medal came from Connor Howe, who delivered a perfect 1500m race when it counted most. He secured bronze for his first career individual world championship medal.
On Friday, Blondin was part of Canada’s bronze medal in the women’s team pursuit alongside Valérie Maltais and Isabelle Weidemann. That trio won Olympic gold in 2022 followed by a world title in 2023 and a world silver medal last year. The day before, Blondin had joined forces with Brooklyn McDougall and Béatrice Lamarche to capture silver in the women’s team sprint.
There were a few near-podium performances, including a fourth-place finish by Laurent Dubreuil in the men’s 500m. He was just 0.01 back of the bronze medal time. Dubreuil then finished fifth in the 1000m. Despite a fierce effort and a strong final push, Weidemann came just 1.78 seconds shy of the podium in the women’s 5000m, finishing fourth. Maltais placed sixth in the women’s 3000m while Ted-Jan Bloemen was sixth in the men’s 10,000m.
Ski Cross: Three double podiums on home snow
The Canadian ski cross team maintained its season of momentum as the FIS World Cup circuit came to Craigleith, Ontario. On Friday, Reece Howden and Kevin Drury finished first and third in the men’s event. It was Howden’s fifth victory of the season. On Saturday, they finished second and third in the second race of the weekend. Howden now sits second in the chase for the Crystal Globe while Drury is sixth in the season standings thanks to his five podium performances.
READ: Howden & Drury double up on ski cross podium at home World Cup in Craigleith
After no Canadian women made it to the big final on Friday, Courtney Hoffos and Abby McEwen placed second and third on Saturday. It’s Hoffos’ third podium of the season and her best World Cup result since March 2023, when she also finished second in Craigleith. For McEwen, it was a big breakthrough for her first career World Cup podium. The team is now in Engadin, Switzerland for the FIS World Championships where ski cross competition will take place March 21-23.
Ski Jumping: Loutitt flies to fifth in Norway
The FIS Ski Jumping World Cup circuit was at a flying hill this weekend, which is a bigger jump than the normal and large hills used in Olympic competition. Alexandria Loutitt was once again in the mix, finishing fifth in Vikersund, Norway with her score of 143 points for her final official jump of 181.5m.
Bobsleigh: Two Canadian sleds finish eighth at world championships
A pair of eighth-place finishes highlighted the final day of the IBSF World Championships for Canada in Lake Placid, New York.
Taylor Austin had a career-best world championship result with his four-man crew of Mike Evelyn O’Higgins, Keaton Bruggeling and Shaq Murray-Lawrence. After the second run was cancelled, their total time over three heats was 2:46.64. They were fifth-fastest in the final run.
“I have mixed emotions from today. We had big goals coming into Lake Placid and missed the mark, but we pulled it together in the final heat, and we were able to move up and have my best world championship result,” said Austin. “It is great to finish things on a high note going into the Olympic season. The guys pushed great and fought right until the end.”
Melissa Lotholz and Leah Walkeden matched that result in the two-woman race, capping off their pre-Olympic season with a time of 3:49.16 over four runs on the 20-corner track.
“I think honestly, we executed a super consistent race and just kept trying to show up. That is what you have to do in a four-run race. You have to take it every run and corner at a time,” said Lotholz.
Alpine Skiing: Grenier eighth in super-G
Valérie Grenier finished eighth in the women’s super-G at the FIS Alpine World Cup in La Thuile, Italy on Friday. It is her fifth top-10 performance of the season and her season best result in super-G. It is her best result in a World Cup super-G since January 2019. Next up for the Canadian Alpine Ski Team will be the FIS World Cup Finals taking place March 20-27 in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Curling: Team Homan starts off strong at world championship
Team Canada—represented by skip Rachel Homan, vice-skip Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew, lead Sarah Wilkes and alternate Rachelle Brown—improved their round robin record to 3-1 after the first three days of the 2025 World Women’s Curling Championship at Uijeongbu Arena, South Korea.
READ: Team Canada takes aim at second straight gold medal at World Women’s Curling Championship
Team Homan split their opening day matches. Coming off a world title last year, Team Homan earned a convincing win against a team making its debut at the women’s worlds. Canada bested Lithuania’s Team Virginija Paulauskaite with a 12-2 victory in six ends.
In a somewhat surprising turn of events, Scotland’s Team Sophie Jackson got an 8-7 win over Canada. Momentum swayed back and forth throughout the game, but Scotland had the final opportunity to capitalize on a mistake from Canada. Leading by two in the 10th end, Canada tried to remove a Scottish rock but jammed it on a Canadian counter in the back of the house. The error led to Scottish fourth Rebecca Morrison making a nose hit for three and the win.
Despite the setback, Team Homan bounced back on Sunday with a 9-7 win over Sweden’s Team Anna Hasselborg. They followed up with a 9-3 win over Denmark in eight ends on Monday.
Cross-Country Skiing: Léveillé finishes top 10 in Oslo
Olivier Léveillé celebrated his 24th birthday with the second-best individual FIS World Cup result of his career, finishing 10th in the 20km classic race in Oslo, Norway on Saturday. The only other time he broke into the top 10 was a ninth-place finish in a 15km freestyle race in March 2022. There are just two weeks remaining in the cross-country World Cup season.
Ski Mountaineering: Cook-Clarke 8th in World Cup sprint
Emma Cook-Clarke finished eighth in the ISMF World Cup sprint race in Schladming, Austria on Saturday. It matches the eighth-place finish she earned in the sprint at the ISMF World Championships earlier in March.
Ski mountaineering will be a new Olympic sport at Milano Cortina 2026. The three events will be women’s and men’s sprints and a mixed relay.
