Canadian chemistry produces pair of promising top six performances in cross-country skiing
The promising results for Team Canada in cross-country skiing continued on Day 12 at Milano Cortina 2026, on both the women’s and men’s sides.
First off, Alison Mackie and Liliane Gagnon finished sixth in the women’s team sprint free, Canada’s best-ever Olympic result in the event in free technique. It’s the second Canadian best-ever result of these Olympic Games for 20-year-old Mackie, who notched an eighth-place finish in the women’s 10km free race.
“I really just made sure to stay calm and stick with the pack the first lap, and I’m really happy with how I did that,” said Mackie. “I think we had great exchanges, and Lili and I worked really well as a team.”
Indeed, Mackie had them in fourth place at the first exchange, a spot Gagnon sustained going into the second exchange. The pair even looked like podium challengers, sitting in the bronze-medal spot after the fourth exchange.
But strong finishes from the German and Norwegian teams bumped the Canadians down the standings. Still, it was an incredible experience for the two Olympic newcomers.
“Personally it felt really good. I felt very strong out there,” said Gagnon, a 23-year-old from Shawinigan-Sud, Que. “It was fast conditions, it was hard, but I think we skied very well in general. So yeah, I’m happy.”
It was a similar story on the men’s side. The Canadian pair of Xavier McKeever and Antoine Cyr also finished sixth in the men’s team sprint free.
“We had some really solid exchanges,” said McKeever, a 22-year-old Olympic debutant. “We did a really good job of keeping high up in the pack and staying clean for the most part, and Tony put me in a really good spot in the last leg.
“Unfortunately I was missing just a little bit of gas at that final climb to stick with the podium contenders. But yeah, proud of our effort today, and yeah, it gives us some motivation and some drive for what’s to come.”
READ: Cross-country skier Xavier McKeever adds to family legacy with ‘surreal’ Olympic debut
Cyr has been close before. At Beijing 2022, Cyr and Graham Ritchie finished fifth in the men’s team sprint classic, Canada’s best-ever Olympic result in that event.
Now at Milano Cortina 2026, the 27-year-old is proud of a “super exciting” result alongside McKeever.
“It was like a lot of fun. It was really tactical today,” said Cyr. “We had really good chemistry, as we said, good exchanges.
“It makes a huge difference during the race. We were right there right until the end and, yeah, I think it’s shown that we have the potential to be there.”
That sense of chemistry extends beyond the race itself—McKeever made sure to thank the technical crew for their work this week.
“The amount of effort they put in was amazing, and it showed: we had really, really good boards today. So thanks to them.”
