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On ice, snow, water and solid ground, Canada’s Olympic athletes won all kinds of medals in all kinds of sports in all kinds of places over the weekend. Here are the highlights:
Summer McIntosh dominated the U.S. Open Championships.
Seven months before she takes centre stage at the Paris Olympics, the teenage swimmer closed out her phenomenal year by winning two gold medals and a bronze at the U.S. Open in North Carolina.
McIntosh kicked things off Thursday night by easily defeating Katie Ledecky in the women’s 400m freestyle, dealing the American star her first loss in the 400 free in a U.S. pool in 11 years. The young Canadian was even more dominant in Friday’s 400m individual medley, blowing away the rest of the field by almost eight seconds in an event where she holds the world record and has won the last two world titles. McIntosh added a bronze Saturday in the 200m backstroke, an event she only dabbles in.
Let’s quickly recap McIntosh’s year: before turning 17 in August, she became the first Canadian swimmer with four world titles when she repeated as gold medallist in the 400m medley and 200m butterfly at the world championships in Japan. Before that, she set world records in the 400 medley and 400 freestyle at the Canadian trials, though the latter was subsequently broken by Australian rival Ariarne Titmus at the worlds.
Ilya Kharun, another of Canada’s rising stars, also excelled at the U.S. Open. The 18-year-old won gold in the men’s 200m butterfly and took silver in the 100m butterfly — just 0.01 of a second behind American star Caeleb Dressel. Josh Liendo, 21, also grabbed a pair of medals: bronze in the 100m butterfly and silver in Thursday’s 50m freestyle. Penny Oleksiak was scheduled for Saturday’s women’s 100m freestyle but did not swim.
Alex Loutitt soared to another two ski jumping medals.
Last winter, Loutitt became the first Canadian to capture a ski jumping world title and the first Canadian woman to win an individual World Cup competition. The 19-year-old kept rolling at the World Cup season opener in Norway, capturing a silver and a bronze to double her career World Cup medal count to four.
Saturday’s bronze came in the normal-size hill event while Sunday’s silver came in the large hill, which will be on the women’s Olympic program for the first time ever in 2026 in Italy. Read more about Loutitt’s rise in this story by CBC Sports’ Devin Heroux.
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Marion Thénault upstaged the King.
The World Cup moguls and aerials season openers in Finland figured to be another coronation for Mikaël Kingsbury, who was favoured to add to his record 80 World Cup moguls victories. And while the GOAT did win his 116th medal in 136 career World Cup starts, he managed only a bronze this time.
Instead, the Canadian star of the meet was Marion Thénault, who won the women’s aerials gold on Sunday for her third career World Cup victory.
Other Canadian medal winners:
* Eliot Grondin, a double medallist in snowboard cross at the 2022 Olympics, won gold at the season opener in France for his fourth career World Cup victory.
* Christa Deguchi and Jessica Klimkait took gold and bronze, respectively, in the women’s 57kg division at a judo Grand Slam event in Tokyo. Deguchi and Klimkait are ranked No. 1 and 2 in the world.
* Freestyle skier Édouard Therriault took silver in his first World Cup big air event of the season.
* The Canadian women’s 3-on-3 basketball team won the bronze-medal game at the AmeriCup in Puerto Rico. It was the team’s third straight trip to the podium at the event.
* Canadian speed skaters captured three medals at a World Cup stop in Norway. After Valérie Maltais placed second in Friday’s women’s mass start, 2018 Olympic champion Ted-Jan Bloemen grabbed a silver of his own in the men’s 10,000m on Saturday before Ivanie Blondin, Carolina Hiller and Maddison Pearman took bronze in Sunday’s women’s team sprint.