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.
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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