MILAN — Canada picked up its first silver medal of the Milan Cortina Olympics on Tuesday with a silver in the short-track speedskating mixed team relay.
William Dandjinou, Kim Boutin, Félix Roussel and Courtney Sarault finished in two minutes 39.258 seconds, behind host Italy and ahead of Belgium, to give Canada a silver and two bronze at the Games.
Steven Dubois and Florence Brunelle also earned silver after skating in the relay earlier in the day.
Also Tuesday, there was mixed news on the injury front for Canada. The women’s hockey team prepared to take on archrival United States in the preliminary round on Day 4 of the Games without captain Marie-Philip Poulin. But figure skaters Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps will compete in the upcoming pairs competition after missing the team event due to an injury to Stellato-Dudek.
Meanwhile, Canadian star Mikael Kingsbury and teammate Julien Viel easily advanced to the freeski men’s moguls final.
The mixed short-track skaters, led by breakout star Dandjinou, entered the Games as the reigning world champions and the favourites for gold. But silver was still a bit of redemption after Canada was disqualified in the mixed relay final at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Boutin and Sarault were on that 2022 team.
“It sets the tone,” Dandjinou said about winning silver. “It is nice to have and to share as a team.
“Obviously, I wanted more, but I always want more,” he added. “I’ve been competing against Olympians for the last four years, against medallists for the last few years, so I don’t see this as representing who I am as a person. But you can never be sad about a silver medal, especially at this level.”
It’s the first Olympic medal for Dandjinou, who won three gold medals and a silver at the 2025 short-track world championships, and fifth for Boutin.
Meanwhile, Dubois, a three-time Olympic medallist at the 2022 Beijing Games, was eliminated in the 1,000-metre preliminaries after falling in his heat following contact with Britain’s Niall Treacy. Officials ruled the contact incidental.
Dandjinou and Roussel, also making his Olympic debut, advanced by winning their preliminary heats. Roussel posted the fastest time of the round at 1:23.828, while Dandjinou clocked 1:24.672.
On the women’s side, Sarault, Boutin and Brunelle all moved through the 500-metre preliminaries. Sarault and Boutin won their heats, while Brunelle finished second in hers to reach the quarterfinals.
The defending champion Canadian women’s hockey team will face its first major test of the Games against the U.S. It’s the first Olympic meeting between the rivals since Canada defeated its neighbours south of the border in the 2022 gold-medal final in Beijing.
Canada captain Marie-Philip Poulin will not play after she was injured in Canada’s 5-1 win over Czechia on Monday.
Poulin suffered an apparent knee injury after being hit by Kristyna Kaltounkova midway through the opening frame.
Hockey Canada says Poulin is listed “day to day” with a lower-body injury.
Canada will close out preliminary play on Thursday against Finland.
Her availability is uncertain for Saturday, when Canada is scheduled to play its quarterfinal against an opponent yet to be determined.
In figure skating, Skate Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee announced that Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps have been cleared to compete in the pairs competition, which starts Sunday in Milan.
The 2024 world champions initially remained in Canada as Stellato-Dudek dealt with an injury she sustained while training outside Montreal when she hit her head on the ice.
The 42-year-old Stellato-Dudek is poised to become the oldest female figure skater in nearly a century to compete at the Olympics.
Kingsbury, a four-time Olympian and the most decorated freestyle skier of all time with 100 World Cup wins, qualified for the moguls final by finishing third in the preliminary round, behind world champion Ikuma Horishima of Japan and Viel.
The 33-year-old Kingsbury, one of Canada’s opening ceremony flag-bearers, won silver, gold and silver at the 2014, 2018 and 2022 Games, respectively.
In Cortina, Canada finished 13th in the women’s alpine team combined as Valérie Grenier skied the downhill and Laurence St-Germain ran the slalom, posting a combined time of 2:24.05.
The Canadians finished 2.39 seconds behind gold medallists Ariane Raedler and Katharina Huber of Austria in the Olympic debut of the event.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 10, 2026.
The Canadian Press
