Valérie Maltais wins Team Canada’s first medal of Milano Cortina 2026 in women’s 3000m
Valérie Maltais has won Team Canada’s first medal of the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.
She skated to bronze in the women’s 3000m at the Milano Speed Skating Stadium with her time of 3:56.93.
Maltais was in the third to last pairing, alongside Italy’s Francesca Lollobrigida. With her home fans encouraging her on, Lollobrigida set an Olympic record time of 3:54.28 to win the gold medal. Maltais’ time matched exactly the previous Olympic record that had been set four years ago at Beijing 2022.
In the next pairing, Ragne Wiklund of Norway recorded a time of 3:56.54 to slide in just ahead of Maltais for the silver medal.
This is Maltais’ first individual Olympic medal. At Beijing 2022, she won gold in the women’s team pursuit alongside Isabelle Weidemann and Ivanie Blondin. That followed her silver medal in the women’s 3000m relay in short track speed skating at Sochi 2014. She was the first Canadian speed skater to ever win Olympic medals in both long track and short track.
This is Canada’s fifth Olympic medal in the women’s 3000m. The previous four were all bronzes, two by Cindy Klassen at Salt Lake City 2002 and Turin 2006, followed by Kristina Groves at Vancouver 2010 and Weidemann at Beijing 2022.
Weidemann finished fifth in Saturday’s race with a time of 3:59.24.
