Skeleton race controversy: Canada defends move amid sabotage claims

Canada has launched a robust defence against accusations it deliberately withdrew four athletes from a skeleton race, a move that dashed eventual winner Katie Uhlaender’s hopes of qualifying for the Winter Olympics.

MILAN – Halftime arrived, and Canada still had no gold medals at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.

No gold by the end of Day 8 on Saturday marked the deepest a Canadian team had gone at a Winter Olympics without reaching the top of the podium since 1988 in Calgary, when the host nation was shut out.

“We would have preferred to see Canada win gold by now, so it’s not exactly where we want to be just in terms of the medal standings, but at the same time, no one’s panicking,” Canadian Olympic Committee chief executive officer David Shoemaker said Saturday.

“There’s a high degree of confidence among this Olympic team. We’ll see our gold medals, they’ll come, and our team’s poised and ready.”

Gold was also hard to come by four years ago in Beijing, where Canada accrued just four among its 26 medals. That was the lowest total since Lillehammer, Norway, in 1994.

The Canadian Olympic Committee and Own The Podium set matching or bettering Beijing’s 26 medals as the target for the 2026 edition.

With three silver and five bronze, Canada ranked 11th in total medals as of Saturday. Norway topped the table with 20 medals and 10 gold ahead of host Italy with 18 medals and six gold. The U.S. ranked third with 17 medals and five gold.

Canadians came agonizingly close to the podium’s top step in the first half of Italy’s Games.

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Moguls skier Mikael Kingsbury’s score of 83.71 tied Cooper Woods, but the Australian was declared the winner due to higher marks for turns, which were the tiebreaker. Kingsbury’s silver was his fourth career Olympic medal, including gold in 2018.

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On the same day, Eliot Grondin missed gold in men’s snowboard cross by three-hundredths of a second behind Austrian Alessandro Haemmerle, who beat Grondin for gold four years ago in Beijing by two one-hundredths of a second.

There was both glory and agony in those moments. Bronze medals produced memorable performances, too.

Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, under pressure, executed a mesmerizing free dance, inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night, to land on the figure skating podium. Gilles was treated for ovarian cancer within months of the duo placing seventh in Beijing.

“We’ve had some incredible medal moments punctuated perhaps by one of my favourite Olympic memories ever, Piper and Paul in the ice dancing,” Shoemaker said.

“To see their emotion, a standing ovation, the emotion of Canadians all around, I don’t think I’ll soon forget the thrill I got from seeing them realize a dream.”

Moncton short track speedskater Courtney Sarault became Canada’s first multi-medallist with a bronze in the women’s 500 metres a day after helping her country take silver in the mixed relay.

At 35 years old, speedskater Valerie Maltais claimed her first medal in an individual long-track race with bronze in the women’s 3,000 metres. She’s among eight Canadian athletes on the 2026 team who made their Olympic debut in 2010 in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C.

The women’s hockey team reached the semifinals, and the men were 2-0 as of Saturday.

The men’s curling team of Brad Jacobs, Marc Kennedy, Brett Gallant and Ben Hebert opened with three straight wins before dropping a game Saturday.

There were strikeouts in the first half. The top-ranked man in the world of short-track speedskating was held off the podium twice. Montreal’s William Dandjinou led until the final lap of the men’s 1,000 metres and finished fourth. He was fifth in Saturday’s 1,500.

The women’s curling team of Rachel Homan, Tracy Fleury, Emma Miskew and Sarah Wilkes started 1-3.

It was an eventful first half for Canada as well. The women’s hockey opener was postponed a week after multiple players on Finland’s team tested positive for norovirus.

Captain Marie-Philip Poulin missed two games with a knee injury, including a 5-0 loss to the United States, but returned for Saturday’s quarterfinal win over Germany.

Decorated snowboarder Mark McMorris banged himself up in big air training and didn’t compete in that event. The triple Olympic medallist is good to go in slopestyle qualifying Sunday.

The men’s curling team was warned about Kennedy’s salty language in a game against Sweden.

The back half will be big for Canada with hockey and curling playoff games, the short-track team in pursuit of more hardware, Kingsbury competing in dual moguls Sunday, and Canada’s deep ski cross and freestyle ski teams in action.

Defending champions Maltais, Isabelle Weidemann and Ivanie Blondin posted the fastest qualifying time in the team pursuit in women’s speedskating. The trio races for gold on Tuesday.

The women’s short track team advanced to Wednesday’s relay final. Dandjinou continues his pursuit of Olympic hardware in the men’s 500 metres final Wednesday, as well as in the men’s relay starting with Tuesday’s semifinals.

“There’s lots of potential still within this team,” Shoemaker said. “Lots of great opportunities, lots of medal moments to come.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 14, 2026.

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Henry Brzustewicz scored a goal, added two assists and then scored the shootout winner for the London Knights as they edged the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds 4-3 on Friday, Feb. 13, at Canada Life Place.

The victory moved London to within two points of Sault Ste. Marie for home ice advantage in what could easily be a first-round matchup between the two teams.

The Knights have 14 games remaining on their schedule.

The Greyhounds have 15 left.

Veteran forward Justin Cloutier created the first goal of the game as he worked his way back to the middle of the London blue line and then flung a puck toward the net, which Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Travis Hayes tipped in to make it 1-0 Sault Ste. Marie at the 9:41 mark of the opening period.

Jaxon Cover tied the game with his 16th goal of the season on his 18th birthday as he hammered home a Jesse Nurmi pass on a 5-on-3 power play for the Knights at 18:08.

The assist extended Nurmi’s point streak to 10 games.

Brzustewicz was also in on the play. Brzustewicz has points in 12 of his past 13 games.

Another 5-on-3 power play for London produced the go-ahead goal by Brzustewicz at 6:10 of the second period as the L.A. Kings first rounder notched his 16th of the year.

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Ryan Brown assisted on the goal to extend his point streak to 11 games. Brown has the longest active point streak in the OHL at the moment.

Before the end of the middle period, Brzustewicz had his third point of the game as he and Cover combined to get the puck to Caleb Mitchell and his wrist shot beat Carter George at 13:59. With that, it was 3-1 for the Knights heading into the final 20 minutes.

The Greyhounds closed the gap to 3-2 just over seven minutes into the third period as a high flip was knocked out of the air by a Sault Ste. Marie stick. However, it hit a London player and went right to Jeremy Martin and Martin scored.

Martin scored again a little more than five minutes later on a Greyhounds man advantage to tie the game 3-3 and it eventually went to overtime.

Those five minutes produced four Knights shots and 2 Sault Ste. Marie shots but no goals.

That set the stage for two big saves from Seb Gatto and London goals by Brown and Brzustewicz in the shootout.

Will Nicholl of the Knights was 25-for-33 in faceoffs on the night.

London won three of the four games between the teams this year. Two of those victories came in shootouts.

The Greyhounds outshot the Knights 38-37.

London was 2-for-7 on the power play and 3-for-4 on the penalty kill.

Londoners and London Knights helping to propel Canada at the Olympics

Nick Suzuki and Bo Horvat have scored goals. Mitch Marner has two assists and Drew Doughty has been a rock on defence for Canada’s Men’s Hockey team at the 2026 Winter Games in Italy.

The four players make up just under a fifth of the entire roster that is looking for gold as NHLers return to the Games for the first time since 2014.

Canada is 2-0 so far after wins over Czechia and Switzerland. Canada will face France at 10:40 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 15.

Marner and Horvat both played for the Knights. Horvat is also from Rodney, Ont., while Suzuki and Doughty are from London. Doughty and Sidney Crosby are each trying to win their third Olympic Gold medal.

Up next

The Knights will host the Owen Sound Attack on Family Day afternoon at 2 p.m., at Canada Life Place.

All 20 teams in the Ontario Hockey League are in action that day and nine of the ten games will begin at 2 p.m.

Coverage of London and Owen Sound will begin at 1:30 p.m., on 980 CCFPL, at www.980cfpl.ca and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

MILAN – Here are some notable quotes from the Milan Cortina Olympics on Feb. 13, 2026:

—

“That’s a good young team, strong scrubbing. They make a lot of shots with the broom, like a lot of young teams do nowadays. We knew they were going to be excited to play us, Team Canada. We did a good job sort of silencing their US fans today, and just really out-curling them from lead to skip.”

— Team Canada curling skip Brad Jacobs, after his team’s 6-3 win over the United States

—

“I’m very happy with the total results, considering this is my personal best.

“I’ll take everything I can from this moment, and considering this is probably the biggest stage of sports, I think I’ll have quite a bit of confidence leading into the world championships.”

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— Canadian figure skater Stephen Gogolev after finishing fifth in men’s single skating.

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—

“For sure, I don’t like the number beside my name today. But I know I still have something to celebrate. It’s the whole past four years I have to celebrate with my family right now here in Italy.”

— Canadian snowboarder Audrey McManiman, on missing the quarterfinals in the women’s snowboard cross event

—

“It did hurt, still hurts, but it’s part of it. That’s why we have a team here. Unbelievable physio and docs have been helping me.”

— Canadian women’s hockey captain Marie-Philip Poulin on the injury that has kept her out of the team’s last two games at the Milan Cortina Olympics.

—

“Obviously, we wanted to win that game. But, you know, there’s lots of games left and just take the lessons from that game.”

— Canada’s Rachel Homan, on her team’s 9-8 loss to the United States in round robin play.

—-

“It’s been a really long career. I had a lot of beautiful moments and this was another beautiful moment in a different way. Maybe not in a performance way, but I think this was a beautiful goodbye at the biggest stage with my family and kids in the crowd. I got to say goodbye in a beautiful way.”

— Canadian long-track speedskater Ted-Jan Bloemen, who ended his Olympic career in the men’s 10,000 metre race.

—

“We definitely take some hits at times, and it’s definitely a part of the sport. And there’s not one snowboarder out here that hasn’t taken a hard hit. We’re a tough breed, and everyone has that warrior spirit in snowboarding and definitely has a lot of passion towards it, or else they wouldn’t be out here.”

— Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris, who is recovering from a concussion and bone bruising that incurred during big air training before the Milan Cortina Olympics started.

—

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2026.

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In a game that featured Tacko Fall dunks, mascots playing defense and NBA and MLB MVPs on the sidelines, it was a boy band that actually stole the show on Friday night at the Kia Forum.

CORTIS consistently drew the biggest cheers at the Ruffles NBA All-Star Celebrity Game in Inglewood, especially after they took the floor to perform two songs at halftime.

MILAN – Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and two assists each as Canada stayed perfect in men’s hockey at the Milan Cortina Olympics with a 5-1 victory over Switzerland on Friday.

Macklin Celebrini, with a goal and an assist, Sidney Crosby and Thomas Harley also scored for Canada (2-0-0-0). Logan Thompson made 24 saves.

Pius Suter replied for Switzerland (1-0-1-0), which got 34 stops from Akira Schmid.

The Canadians, who clinched Group A with two regulation victories, six points and a plus-nine goal differential, opened their tournament with Thursday’s relentless 5-0 victory over Czechia in the first Olympic game involving the country’s NHLers since 2014.

Next up for Canada is a meeting with France on Sunday to wrap up preliminary round play. The Czechs (1-0-1-0) picked up a 6-3 win over the French (0-0-2-0) in Friday’s early game.

Head coach Jon Cooper indicated earlier this week that two of Canada’s three goaltenders — Thompson, Jordan Binnington and Darcy Kuemper — would split the first two games at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena. Binnington picked up a 26-save shutout Thursday with Thompson backing up, while Kuemper dressed as the No. 2 option Friday.

Canadian defenceman Josh Morrissey, who left Thursday’s victory early in the second period, didn’t dress against the Swiss. Travis Sanheim took his place and skated as the seventh defenceman. The final addition to the roster after Brayden Point was left at home injured, Seth Jarvis took Brad Marchand’s place up front.

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Swiss fans were in full voice ahead of puck drop as a European-heavy crowd whistled and booed the Canadians when they hit the ice ahead of puck drop for a second straight contest.

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Shea Theodore saw his shot clank off iron inside the first minute for Canada before Switzerland’s Nino Niederreiter was denied by Thompson on an odd-man rush at the other end.

McDavid, who had three assists in the opener, scored his first Olympic goal on a power play at 5:45 of the first period off a great pass from MacKinnon inside the 11,600 rink that was finished just in time for the Games.

Sidney Crosby was denied with a desperation flying skate save from Schmid on a breakaway later in the period, but Canada made it 2-0 at 10:45 when Harley scored five-hole after McDavid found him in the slot off the rush.

Switzerland, which topped France 4-0 in its Thursday opener, cut the deficit in half on a man advantage at 12:42 when Sven Andrighetto’s point shot hit Thompson’s glove, the crossbar and fell kindly to Suter, who was high-sticked by Bo Horvat, set up the 5-on-4 opportunity.

McDavid delivered a huge hit on the forecheck for a second straight game that rocked Andrea Glauser — much to the delight of a group of fans with a “Connor McJesus” banner — before the superstar took a big check from Timo Meier later in the period.

Canada killed off a Theodore penalty for tripping early in the middle period to set the stage for Celebrini, the youngest player in the tournament, to score his second goal in as many nights off a Mackinnon pass from the corner at 4:14.

The plucky Swiss, whose fans tossed a couple of beer cups on the ice during some heated moments, held firm the rest of the second and had a push in the third, including another shot off Thompson’s crossbar in a flurry of action around Canada’s net.

But Crosby put things out of reach moments later when he redirected a Mitch Marner pass at 7:28, and Canada cruised from there to pick up another convincing victory.

MacKinnon rounded out the scoring at 13:03 from McDavid and Celebrini — a newly formed and lethal trio put together for the first time Friday that’s combined for 270 points this season.

Swiss forward Kevin Fiala had to be stretchered off with 2:50 left in regulation with an apparent leg injury after a collision with Tom Wilson along the boards.

The NHL is back on the world stage following a 12-year absence that saw the game’s best skip 2018 before a planned return in 2022 was axed by COVID-19 concerns.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2026.

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MILAN – Canada’s Secretary of Sport knows what it is to be an Olympian, albeit in a summer sport.

Adam van Koeverden, an Olympic kayak champion, said the fan came out in him at the Milan Cortina Winter Games, particularly while watching his favourite winter sport of cross-country skiing.

“Not just Canadian athletes, but all athletes,” he said Friday at the Canadian consulate in Milan. “I watch them, and I have a degree of educated awe that I can feel.”

The Liberal MP for Burlington North-Milton West, who was the 500-metre champion in 2004 and owns three more Olympic medals, was handed the sports post in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first cabinet just under a year ago.

Van Koeverden served six years as parliamentary secretary to successive sport ministers after first being elected in 2019.

Canadian athletes, and by extension the national sport system, are under a hot spotlight at the Olympic Games as successes and misses are magnified in the biggest multi-sport stage on the planet.

With three silver medals and four bronze, Canada had yet to win gold on Friday, which was the deepest a Canadian team had gone, not standing atop the podium since the 1988 Olympic Games in Calgary, where the host team was shut out of gold.

The Canadian Olympic and Paralympic committees have lobbied the federal government on behalf of national sport organizations (NSOs) for an increase in core funding, with the latest ask a $144-million raise in 2025.

Core funding is money all NSOs count on to fund operations, athletes, coaches and support staff, and they say it hasn’t increased since 2005. It’s been described as the “blood in the veins” of an organization.

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Two federal budgets have passed without an increase, although athletes saw a $410 raise in their monthly athlete assistance cheques in the 2024 budget.

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Chief executive officer David Shoemaker has said that Canada’s athletes “are having to increasingly do more with less.”

Van Koeverden maintains there’s been considerable investment in athletes by the federal government, which spends $266 million annually on sport.

“In the last seven years, we’ve managed to increase the athlete assistance program by 45 per cent,” he said, adding there have also been increases in mental health services, support for student-athletes and funding at sport institutes that provide science and medical resources.

“It has been dwelled on that one stream, which represents about 15 per cent of our sport funding, has remained the same, but the total sport budget and all of the things that I just mentioned, since the time when a lot of organizations have been indicating, about 20 years, has more than doubled.”

The sport system must also do more than build Olympians, van Koeverden said.

“That’s one reason that we fund sport, but there’s a dozen others too,” he said. “My main sort of policy obsession is making sure that everybody has an opportunity to play regardless of your financial background, your situation, where you live, who your parents are, how much money you got, whether you have a disability or not, whether you feel like you belong, let’s lower all those barriers.

“It’s a question of do you want to fund Olympic performance for Olympic performance or do you want to fund sport for all the great reasons in the way that will benefit children, youth, families, seniors, communities, for all of the reasons and all the ways we know it can? What you get out of that is also Olympic performance. That’s my vision.”

Where the federal government has opened the coffers for sport, van Koeverden says, is in the infrastructure money in the 2025 federal budget to build and revitalize pools, arenas and fieldhouses.

“It used to be a be like a $200-million fund, and now it’s a $51-billion fund,” he said. “It’s shared with waste water and public transit, but the availability of funding for sport infrastructure is vastly broadened and increased.

“We’ve got good facilities in our country, but we need to build more. The prime minister is not shy about wanting to build Canada, and that includes sports facilities.”

As for Canada hosting another Olympic Games or a multi-sport event such as the Pan American or Commonwealth Games, van Koeverden said the push does not come from the federal government.

The feds provide financial support for such ventures, such as the $320 million for FIFA World Cup matches in Toronto and Vancouver later this year.

Van Koeverden is a believer in the public legacy pieces that multi-sport events leave behind.

He points to the Milton velodrome in his riding, built for the 2015 Pan American Games, where Olympic track cyclists train, and parents push strollers when it’s snowing outside.

“Before we get too wrapped up in how much the Games cost to implement and do, let’s also look at how timely that infrastructure comes to fruition when we have a deadline and a Games to host,” he said.

“It is a matter of working together with all levels of government to make sure it’s a priority, to make that it’s utilizing existing infrastructure, to make sure the public money that goes into it is going to serve Canadians for decades.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2026.

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