Weekend Roundup: Team Canada reaches podiums across the globe
Winter sports are back in full swing and Canadian athletes showed no signs of rust this weekend.
From gold medals to first-time victories, Team Canada had a successful weekend on both ice and snow.
Here’s what you missed:
Success on the slopes ❄️
READ: Reece Howden skis to gold in Sweden
READ: Ski Cross: Howden wins gold, Thompson claims bronze in Idre Fjäll
Reece Howden won back-to-back gold medals at the FIS Ski Cross World Cup in Idre Fjäll, Sweden. This gave Howden three victories in his past four races. The 22-year-old currently sits at the top of the FIS World Cup standings after his golden weekend.
READ: Marielle Thompson wins ski cross silver in Idre Fjäll
Marielle Thompson is also leaving Idre Fjäll with two medals around her neck. The two-time Olympian won silver earlier in the week and bronze on Saturday.
READ: Eliot Grondin races to snowboard cross silver in Italy
In snowboard cross, Eliot Grondin kicked off his season on a high note at the FIS Snowboard Cross World Cup in Chiesa in Valmalenco, Italy. The 19-year-old raced to a silver medal to capture his second career World Cup podium finish on Saturday.
(Speed) skating to the podium ⛸
READ: Gold and bronze in the team pursuit at the Heerenveen Speed Skating World Cup
READ: Long track: Team Canada skates to three medals at the Heerenveen World Cup
Canada’s speed skaters participated in their first World Cup of the season, skating to five podiums in the bubble in Heerenveen, Netherlands.
They opened the first World Cup taking place in Heerenveen on Friday with gold and bronze in the team pursuit. Ivanie Blondin, Isabelle Weidemann and Valérie Maltais found themselves on top of the women’s podium after clocking in a time of 2:56.718. Meanwhile, Ted-Jan Bloemen, Jordan Belchos and Connor Howe took bronze in the men’s event.
On Saturday, Blondin, Heather McLean and Laurent Dubreuil added three more medals to Canada’s haul. Dubreuil and McLean captured silver and bronze, respectively, in the men’s and women’s 500m races. In the women’s mass start, Blondin skated to a silver medal to earn her second medal of the weekend.
This was quite the season opener for the Canadian team, which has been unable to train at the Olympic Oval in Calgary due to refrigeration issues, which forced them to find ice wherever they could, including frozen ponds.
World Cup breakthrough 🙌
READ: Marion Thénault claims first World Cup podium in Moscow
Marion Thénault claimed her first-ever World Cup podium in Moscow, Russia on Saturday. Thénault put up 90.59 points in her aerials competition to claim a bronze medal. She made her first World Cup appearance last season in Deer Valley, Utah where she finished 18th.
🛷 to the podium
READ: Jane Channell slides to bronze at Königssee World Cup
For the first time in three years, skeleton athlete Jane Channell reached the podium on the World Cup circuit. At her first World Cup of the season, Channell tied Austrian Janine Flock for third place. The B.C. native now has a total of four career World Cup medals.
6️⃣ swimmers nominated for Tokyo 2020
Swimming Canada announced on Friday that six athletes were provisionally nominated to Team Canada for the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics Games: Margaret Mac Neil (100m butterfly), Kylie Masse (100m backstroke, 200m backstroke), Penny Oleksiak (200m freestyle), Sydney Pickrem (200m breaststroke, 200m IM, 400m IM), Taylor Ruck (100m freestyle) and Markus Thormeyer (200m backstroke).
You can read more about this news and what’s ahead for the Olympic Trials here.
