Weekend Roundup: Grenier’s podium on home snow highlights standout World Cup weekend
From slopes of Mont-Tremblant to the oval in Heerenveen to the snow parks in Ruka and Beijing, Team Canada athletes delivered a weekend packed with standout performances.
With veterans stepping up and rising stars making themselves known on the world stage, Canadian athletes kept the momentum rolling as the road to Milano Cortina 2026 continues to heat up.
Alpine Skiing: Grenier grabs giant slalom podium
Valérie Grenier delivered a memorable performance in Mont-Tremblant, finishing third in Saturday’s giant slalom at the FIS World Cup. It is her first career podium on Canadian snow. Racing in front of an energized home crowd, she posted a combined two-run time of 2:17.18 to stand on her fifth career World Cup podium.
READ: Grenier claims bronze on home snow at Mont-Tremblant World Cup
South of the border in Beaver Creek, Colorado, James (Jack) Crawford led the Canadian men with a seventh-place finish in a challenging super-G World Cup race on Friday. Crawford clocked 1:08.07, 1.30 seconds off the winning time, in an event disrupted by strong winds and cut short after 31 starters. On Thursday, Cameron Alexander had finished 10th in the men’s downhill, 1.27 seconds back of the winner.
Long Track Speed Skating: Three medals in Heerenveen
Canadian long track speed skaters came away from the third stop of the ISU Speed Skating World Cup in Heerenveen with three podiums. After narrowly missing the podium twice to start the season, Isabelle Weidemann broke through on Friday with a silver medal in the women’s 5000m. It marks her first individual World Cup podium since taking 3000m bronze in Beijing last season.
“I’m happy with how things went today,” said Weidemann. “I was having a hard time finding the pace. I kind of bounced around a bit – it was too slow, too fast, too slow. Once I found it and felt good. The last half I think was the best part. Generally, people start so much fast than I do. I was watching Ragne and she was so smooth. I didn’t want the gap to get too big, and I was trying to keep her in my sights.”
On Saturday, Ivanie Blondin returned to the World Cup podium in the 1500m, earning bronze—her first medal in that distance in nearly five seasons. Blondin added another podium on Sunday, teaming up with Brooklyn McDougall and Béatrice Lamarche to claim silver in the women’s team sprint, a non-Olympic event.
Blondin came just short of the mass start podium with a fourth place finish. Laurent Dubreuil posted his best 500m result of the season, placing sixth in 34.39 seconds. In the 1000m, Lamarche and Anders Johnson both skated to sixth-place finishes.
The ISU World Cup Speed Skating season continues next weekend in Hamar, the final opportunity for Canada’s long track athletes to secure Olympic quota spots for Milano Cortina 2026.
Aerials & Moguls: Thénault opens season with podium performance
The FIS Freestyle World Cup season for aerials and moguls launched in Ruka, Finland. Marion Thénault delivered a strong opening performance, scoring 82.48 points to secure second place for her 12th career World Cup podium.
READ: Aerials 101 with Marion Thénault and Lewis Irving
READ: Moguls skier Maïa Schwinghammer is growing towards Milano Cortina 2026
Action continued Sunday with the first of two moguls World Cup events as the Olympic qualification race intensifies. Maïa Schwinghammer led the Canadian women with a solid fifth-place finish. On the men’s side, Mikaël Kingsbury is seeking his 100th career World Cup victory, but he withdrew from the competition in Ruka after being hindered by a groin injury.
READ: Moguls 101: The ins and outs of the bumps and jumps
Ski Big Air: Second straight World Cup podium for Urness
Canada may have a rising star in its midst. At the FIS Freeski World Cup in Beijing, Naomi Urness continued her breakthrough season, finishing third in big air with a two-run total of 171.50 points. The 21-year-old from Mont-Tremblant, Que. remains on a roll after finishing second just a week earlier in Secret Garden. Those were the first World Cup big air competitions of her career.
Ski Jumping: Second podium of season for Strate
Abigail Strate finished second in the women’s large hill at the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup in Wisla, Poland on Thursday. It is her second runner-up performance of the World Cup season. She added a 10th-place finish in Friday. She’s now finished in the top 10 in five of six World Cup events this season and is ranked fourth in the World Cup standings.
Figure Skating: Gilles & Poirier finish fourth at Grand Prix Final
Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier narrowly missed the podium at the ISU Grand Prix Final, finishing fourth after a well-skated free dance on Saturday in Nagoya, Japan. The Canadian duo entered the day in third place following a strong rhythm dance, but their free dance score of 125.86 left them just shy of the top three.
Gilles and Poirier’s combined total placed them a mere 0.06 points behind Great Britain’s Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson, who earned 208.81 to clinch the bronze.
In the pairs event, Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps finished sixth with a total score of 194.36.
Luge: Podulsky & Allan in top 5 of women’s doubles
Beattie Podulsky and Kailey Allan produced the best result of their careers, finishing fifth at the FIL World Cup opener in Winterberg, Germany. They earned their spot in the World Cup women’s doubles race after finishing third in the Nations Cup race on Friday.
“It is great to get our best World Cup finish,” said Podulsky, who noted that the tandem crashed in Winterberg at last year’s World Cup. “We had two clean runs and a solid starting setup.”
The 20-year-old Podulsky and Allan, 22, posted the fastest start times in each of their two heats, showing that they’re becoming more competitive with the world’s best feet-first sliders. The two were paired together last year and are aiming to be part of the first ever women’s doubles luge event at the Olympic Games in February.
