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The winter Olympic sports season continues with important events in figure skating, speed skating and skiing, while water-bound athletes’ path to the Summer Olympics goes through the World Aquatics Championships in Qatar. Here’s what to watch this weekend, and the scoop on three World Cup victories by Canadian athletes over the past 24 hours.
World Aquatics Championships
Competition began today in Doha, where Canada’s Mia Vallée failed to qualify for the medal round in the women’s 1m springboard. She was the bronze medallist at the 2022 world championships in this non-Olympic event.
The top Canadian diver competing this weekend is Caeli McKay in the women’s 10m platform. She clinched an Olympic spot for Canada with her bronze-medal performance at last year’s world championships. Kate Miller can earn another Olympic berth for Canada by finishing in the top 12. The preliminary round goes Sunday and the event culminates with the final on Monday morning.
Preliminary competition opened today in artistic swimming, where Canadians Jacqueline Simoneau and Audrey Lamothe are attempting to qualify for the Olympics in the duet while Canada tries for an Olympic spot in the team event.
The Canadian women’s water polo team’s last chance to qualify for the Olympics begins with their group-stage opener against South Africa on Sunday. Half of the 16 teams in the tournament have already qualified for the Olympics. The top two finishers among the rest will get the last remaining spots in Paris.
The women’s and men’s 10km open-water swimming events take place early Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Canada’s Emma Finlin and Laila Oravsky (women’s) and Eric Hedlin and Hau-Li Fan (men’s) can get into the Olympics with a top-13 finish.
Figure skating
A tough week for Canadians can end on a positive note at the Four Continents Championships in China, where non-European skaters are gathered for their answer to last month’s European championships.
On Monday, Canada learned that it would not be promoted to a bronze medal in the team event at the 2022 Olympics in the wake of the Kamila Valieva doping scandal. Though the Russian teenager was retroactively disqualified and suspended for four years by sports’ highest appeals court, figure skating’s global governing body decided to simply deduct Valieva’s points from her team’s score rather than disqualify the Russians completely. As a result, they lost the gold medal but only dropped to the bronze position — one point ahead of fourth-place Canada, which vowed to appeal.
Four of the Canadians who stood to get an Olympic medal if the Russians were DQ’d are competing at the Four Continents. National ice dance champions Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier took the lead in their event by topping today’s opening round. Roman Sadovsky ranks 11th heading into the final stage of the men’s event on Saturday morning. Madeline Schizas finished sixth in the women’s event.
Canada’s Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps lead the pairs event going into tonight’s decisive free skate. Gilles and Poirier can secure the ice dance title on Saturday night.
Sitting second in the dance are Canadians Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Soerensen. The duo withdrew from the national championships in Calgary last month after it was reported that Soerensen is under investigation by safe-sport authorities after a woman accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2012. Soerensen called the allegations “false” and Fournier Beaudry expressed support for her teammate.
Speed skating
The final meet of the long track World Cup season began this afternoon in Quebec City, where several Canadians find themselves at or near the top of the standings in the various distances.
Valérie Maltais and Ivanie Blondin rank first and second, respectively, in the women’s mass start heading into Sunday’s finale. Maltais is third in the women’s long distances standings, which combine the 3,000 and 5,000m races. Laurent Dubreuil is second in the men’s 500m, and Ted-Jan Bloemen is third in the men’s long distances (5,000m and 10,000m). The Olympic-champion women’s team pursuit trio of Maltais, Blondin and Isabelle Weidemann finished second after last week’s season finale.
After this weekend comes the world championships in Calgary starting Feb. 15.
What else to know:
* Mikaël Kingsbury won the men’s moguls event at Utah’s Deer Valley last night for his 87th World Cup gold. That moved the Canadian past Swedish alpine great Ingemar Stenmark for the most men’s World Cup wins in one skiing discipline. Kingsbury will try for his ninth victory of the season on Saturday night in the dual moguls event.
* Canada’s India Sherret raced to her first World Cup ski cross gold today in Italy. In part due to injuries, the 27-year-old hadn’t reached the podium since late 2019. Canadian Hannah Schmidt placed seventh to maintain her lead in the women’s standings. Reece Howden overtook fellow Canadian Jared Schmidt (Hannah’s brother) for top spot in the men’s chase after they finished fifth and 20th, respectively. Another set of men’s and women’s races is scheduled for Saturday at the same venue.
* Canadian Mirela Rahneva won a surprising World Cup skeleton gold today in Latvia. It’s her first victory in more than two years and her first podium appearance since taking bronze at the season opener in China in November. She ranks eighth in the women’s World Cup standings. Competition in Latvia continues with bobsleigh races on Saturday and Sunday.
How to watch:
With the exception of dual moguls and ski cross, the upcoming events mentioned above are being streamed live on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.
Other live events on those platforms this weekend include a Professional Women’s Hockey League game between Minnesota and Toronto on Saturday, and Canada’s Davis Cup tennis qualifier against South Korea in Montreal. That starts today at 4 p.m. ET and continues Saturday at 2 p.m. ET. Watch it here.
On Saturday, the CBC TV network will show the Minnesota-Toronto PWHL game live at noon ET, followed by the NHL All-Star Game and then coverage of the World Aquatics Championships and the speed skating World Cup meet in Quebec City. See the full streaming and broadcast schedule here.