Team Canada in top five after first day of Olympic figure skating team event
Team Canada got off to a solid start in the figure skating team event at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.
After the rhythm dance, the pairs short program, and the women’s short program, Canada is in fifth place. That is the cutoff spot for advancement to the final phase of the competition. The five teams that will compete in the free skates will not be confirmed until after the men’s short programs take place on Saturday.
After the first day, Canada accumulated 19 points, putting them one point behind Georgia and three back of third place Italy. The United States leads with 25 points while Japan is second with 23 points.
The team event began with the rhythm dance. Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier placed fourth with a season best score of 85.79. They were less than a point behind Great Britain’s Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson who ranked third.
The technical score for Gilles and Poirier wasn’t quite as high as they hoped as they received a level two on their pattern step sequence and levels three (Gilles) and two (Poirier) on their midline step sequence. But overall, they were content with their first performance in Milan.
“We really just let our training kind of just happen today, which was really refreshing,” said Gilles. “We did get a little bit ahead of ourselves because I think we got excited during the midline but it’s nice to have kind of a test run before we go to the individual [ice dance event].
“It was so much fun and we’re just looking forward to competing as Team Canada, not just ourselves.”
Gilles and Poirier are the most experienced members of the Canadian figure skating team, but the four-time world championship medallists recognize that doesn’t make them any more important than anyone else.
“That’s what’s so special about the team event is everybody has a role and everybody contributes. I think we’re really proud of this skate we put out today and we posted a very solid score and we’ll be in a good placement for the ice dance,” said Poirier.
Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud were up next in the pairs short program. Since the national championships in January, they had been expecting to compete in the free skate of the team event. But they were thrust into the short program after 2024 World champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps sustained an injury in a training accident at home in Montreal just before the Games began. They did not feel any extra pressure, however.
“We just used it more like an extra sense of motivation and pride and just trying to fight for them. We know they couldn’t be here to fight today so we just wanted to put our energy towards that,” said Pereira.
Pereira and Michaud placed fourth with a score of 68.24 points, a couple points off their season best, for close to a clean skate. They had some slight issues on their triple twist and side by side spins, which led to some loss on the grade of execution.
“Overall I’m proud of both of us for handling the nerves, handling our first team event together. We really felt the support from the [Team Canada] box and the crowd and I’m still happy with our performance, even though we had a few little things,” said Pereira.
“We’ve been thinking about Deanna and Max, we’re still sending them the best wishes to be back for the individual event and we definitely skated a little bit extra for them today,” said Michaud. “We think we managed that really well. There were those little not normal mistakes but we’ll fine tune those for Sunday and for the individual event.”
Madeline Schizas closed out the day with an almost clean short program that ranked her sixth among the women. Her only deduction stemmed from a “q” call on the back end of her opening triple lutz triple toe combo, meaning she landed a quarter turn short of full rotation, costing her some points on the grade on execution.
Schizas recovered well after she had to restart her program. She didn’t hear her music begin to play and in that situation was allowed to ask the referee to begin again.
“I’ve had this happen before in my career, especially as a younger athlete, so I knew exactly what to do,” she explained. “It wasn’t unnerving.”
“I think I would have skated the same either way. Obviously at the Olympics you hope things like this don’t happen, but as we all as athletes know how to deal with it.
“I’m happy with my performance. I think that I skated my elements very well.”
Stephen Gogolev will look to secure Canada’s spot in the final phase of the team event when he skates in the men’s short program on Saturday.
