4 Team Canada sports to watch this weekend: January 5-7
Team Canada is powering into 2024 with an action-packed weekend of sports.
In the winter sport realm, Canadian alpine and cross-country skiers are competing in World Cups overseas, along with Team Canada luge athletes. It’s not just winter sport athletes in action though, as Canadian sailors take on the world at the ILCA 6 Women’s World Championship.
Sailing
The ILCA 6 Women’s World Championship is underway in Mar del Plata, Argentina.
Sarah Douglas is Canada’s headliner at this competition, where only boats in the ILCA 6 single-handed dinghy class will be in action. At the World Sailing Championships in The Hague, Netherlands last August, Douglas (who took sixth place at Tokyo 2020) secured an Olympic quota spot for Canada for Paris 2024 in the ILCA 6 class. Also competing for Canada in Mar del Plata will be Clara Gravely.
This is the first of two regattas that will be used to determine which Canadian sailor will compete in the ILCA 6 at Paris 2024. The results from the ILCA 6 World Championship and the Trofeo Princesa Sofia in late March will be added together and the sailor with the lowest score combined position will earn the Olympic spot.
Weather permitting, racing begins on Friday with two races scheduled each day, leading up to the medal race on January 10.
Alpine Skiing
Canadian technical skiers are racing this weekend, with the women competing at the FIS Alpine World Cup in Kranjska Gora, Slovakia and the men competing in Adelboden, Switzerland. Both stops will feature giant slalom races on Saturday, followed by slalom races on Sunday.
On the women’s side, Valérie Grenier is one to look out for. She finished off 2023 with a fourth-place finish in the giant slalom at the FIS World Cup in Lienz, Austria — her best result so far this season. Grenier’s first career World Cup podium and victory came almost exactly one year ago in Kranjska Gora in the giant slalom. Ali Nullmeyer has been Canada’s top slalom skier so far this season and sits sixth in those World Cup standings.
Erik Read is one to watch on the men’s side, as he seeks to improve upon his final result of 2023, a 25th place finish at the slalom World Cup in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy.
Cross-Country Skiing
The final stop on the FIS Tour de Ski will take place this weekend in Val di Fiemme, Italy. Contested as part of the FIS World Cup circuit, the Tour de Ski is modeled off of cycling’s Tour de France, with athletes competing in stages and the leader wearing a distinctive jersey. Val di Fiemme is the traditional finale for the tour, featuring the “final climb” during which athletes race up the alpine ski course.
Saturday will feature the 15km mass starts in classic technique, setting up Sunday’s 10km mass starts in free technique (which includes the famous final climb).
After the first five races, Olympian Antoine Cyr is in 10th place in the men’s Tour de Ski standings. He got a boost up the rankings with his seventh place finish in the 20km pursuit classic in Davos, Switzerland on Thursday. He had started the stage in 24th place, over a minute back of the leader, but charged through the field for his best result of the season. Teammate Olivier Léveillé is in 49th place heading into the weekend. Olympian Katherine Stewart-Jones unfortunately had to withdraw from the women’s Tour de Ski after just one stage due to illness.
Luge
Canadian lugers will hit the track in Winterberg, Germany this weekend for the FIL World Cup. This venue will also host the 2024 Bobsleigh and Skeleton World Championships from February 19 – March 3.
Canada will be represented by Trinity Ellis, Caitlin Nash, and Embyr-Lee Susko in women’s singles, Dylan Morse in men’s singles, as well Devin Wardrope and Cole Zajanski in men’s doubles.
Eighteen-year-old Susko had a breakthrough at the end of 2023, as she finished a career-best ninth in women’s singles at the FIL World Cup on her home track in Whistler in mid-December. She also recorded top-10 finishes in women’s doubles and as part of the team relay.
