Weekend Roundup: Dandjinou dazzles, Gilles & Poirier dance to Grand Prix Final
It was the busiest weekend thus far of this Olympic season for winter sports.
Whether you’re a fan of figure skating or speed skating—both short track and long track—or perhaps bobsleigh or ski jumping or alpine skiing, there was something for just about everyone to get excited about.
Figure Skating: Two medals at last Grand Prix stop
Team Canada delivered on the final day of competition at the 2025 Finlandia Trophy. Stephen Gogolev earned his first Grand Prix medal with bronze in the men’s event, before Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier closed the day with ice dance silver. Combined with their victory at Skate Canada International, which came despite a major mistake on a lift in their free dance, that confirmed their qualification for next month’s ISU Grand Prix Final in Japan.
“I think we’re really proud of our performance today,” Poirier said. “We had a lot of pressure on ourselves after a weak performance at Skate Canada, and so we needed to prove to ourselves that we are capable of this program, and I think we accomplished that today.”
READ: Gilles & Poirier reach Final with silver at Finlandia Trophy; Gogolev claims first Grand Prix medal
Gogolev continued to look strong in what has been something of a renaissance season for him. After several seasons hampered by injuries, the 2018-19 Junior Grand Prix Final champion—who is still only 20 years old—claimed his first career senior Grand Prix medal. He took the bronze with 253.61 points. Just behind him in fourth place with 243.29 points was Roman Sadovsky. This is the fourth time this season that Gogolev and Sadovsky competed in the same event, as they battle for Canada’s lone men’s spot for Milano Cortina 2026.
Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud finished fifth in the pairs competition. In the women’s event, Madeline Schizas finished fifth overall after having been ranked third in the short program. Her score of 188.60 is the best by a Canadian woman this season.
Meanwhile, at the Warsaw Cup, an ISU Challenger Series event, Sara-Maude Dupuis earned the gold medal with a personal best score of 185.66. Her first international victory was punctuated by a clean triple axel in the free skate. She is the first Canadian woman to ever land that jump. Canada has just one women’s spot for Milano Cortina 2026.
Short Track Speed Skating: Seven medals at third World Tour stop
William Dandjinou continued his impressive season, dominating the first day of finals at the ISU Short Track World Tour in Gdansk, Poland.
Last year’s Crystal Globe winner won gold in both the men’s 1500m and 500m. He’s won all three 500m races this season and the last two 1500m races. Steven Dubois added bronze in the 500m and finished sixth in the 1500m. In the women’s 1000m, Courtney Sarault claimed silver, while Florence Brunelle finished fourth.
READ: Dandjinou strikes twice at Short Track World Tour in Gdansk
On Sunday, Sarault and Dubois were both back on the podium, as Sarault won bronze in the women’s 1500m and Dubois finished third in the men’s 1000m. Sarault was also in the women’s 500m final, finishing fourth. Dubois, Dandjinou, Brunelle and Danaé Blais added a bronze in the mixed relay.
Dandjinou comfortably leads the men’s overall standings heading into the fourth and final ISU Short Track World Tour stop next weekend in Dordrecht. Sarault tops the women’s rankings. The end of the World Tour also marks the end of the Olympic qualification period.
Long Track Speed Skating: Four medals at Calgary World Cup
In possibly her final international competition on home ice, Ivanie Blondin won gold in the women’s mass start on Sunday for her 40th career World Cup medal in the event.
“It’s most likely my last World Cup here at home, so I’m a little bit emotional,” said Blondin. “This result is what I wanted, especially after last week’s weird finish to the Mass Start. My goal was to keep it together and not let any break aways happen, because my forte is obviously the final sprint. I found a hole in the last lap and went for it.”
READ: Blondin wins gold in mass start at Calgary World Cup
Valérie Maltais had been in a podium position coming out of the last corner, but a slight loss of balance caused her to slip to fourth place. She did get on the podium with Blondin and Isabelle Weidemann as the reigning Olympic champions took silver in the women’s team pursuit.
That was Maltais’ second medal of the weekend. On Friday, she earned her second straight World Cup podium in the women’s 3000m, taking bronze in a personal best time of 3:56.45. Weidemann staged a late-race surge to finish fourth in 3:56.66.
Ted-Jan Bloemen earned bronze in the men’s 5000m with the second-fastest time of his career—6:02.26. That briefly set an Olympic Oval record before being surpassed.
“Last season was difficult for me. I didn’t really have any good performances, so I changed my training a bit in the summer and worked really hard to get back into medal contention. Up until now this season, I didn’t have a race that proved I was back, but I knew it from my training that I was. I just wanted so bad to prove it, and today I did just that, and it was very relieving,” said Bloemen.
In the women’s 1000m, Béatrice Lamarche finished sixth, just a week after her first individual podium in Salt Lake City.
Ski Jumping: Strate launches World Cup season with second place finish
Abigail Strate kicked off the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup season with a second place finish in Lillehammer, Norway. Covering distances of 129m and 121m, she scored 259.7 points in the women’s large hill event.
“Not a bad start. It feels really good,” Strate said. “I can’t really process that this is the life I’m living right now. I’ve struggled in this sport for so long. I always look at the top athletes with so much awe and now I’m up there regularly with them.”
For Strate, Lillehammer marked the sixth time she’s landed on an individual World Cup podium in her career. The runner-up finish matched a career-best performance from January 2024.
Freestyle Skiing: Asselin rides the wind to slopestyle silver in Stubai
Olivia Asselin soared to second place at the 2025 FIS Freeski Slopestyle World Cup opener in Stubai, Austria. With finals cancelled due to high winds, her strong qualifying score of 76.71 secured her runner-up finish behind Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud. Megan Oldham ended up in fourth place with 68.04 points. The men were unable to even get their qualification round done.
Bobsleigh: Lotholz finishes top six in monobob at World Cup opener
The 2025-26 IBSF World Cup season kicked off at the Eugenio Monti Sliding Centre in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy—the new track set to host the sliding sports during the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in February. Melissa Lotholz delivered a strong performance, finishing sixth in the women’s monobob with a two-run time of 1:59.99.
READ: Being a great bobsleigh pilot takes much more than just a need for speed
Lotholz was also the top Canadian pilot in the two-woman event, finishing ninth with brakewoman Skylar Sieben, one spot ahead of Kristen Bujnowski and Dawn Richardson Wilson.
Hallie Clarke was the top Canadian competitor in skeleton, finishing sixth in the women’s event.
READ: How do you learn to drive an Olympic sliding track?
Alpine Skiing: St-Germain shines in slalom
Laurence St-Germain skied to an 11th place finish in women’s slalom at the FIS Alpine World Cup in Gurgl, Austria on Sunday. She climbed from 24th place after the first run to end up just outside the top 10 with the third-fastest second run of the day.
This was the first World Cup of the season for the 2023 world champion who missed the first two stops of the circuit with a back injury.
