{"id":107443,"date":"2026-02-03T17:02:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T22:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=107443"},"modified":"2026-02-03T17:23:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T22:23:34","slug":"opinion-taylor-mckee-discusses-canadas-olympic-medal-hopefuls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2026\/02\/opinion-taylor-mckee-discusses-canadas-olympic-medal-hopefuls\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Taylor McKee discusses Canada’s Olympic medal hopefuls"},"content":{"rendered":"

This piece written by Taylor McKee, Assistant Professor of Sport Management at Brock University,<\/em>\u00a0originally appeared in The Conversation<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Game Plan.\u00a0Best Ever \u201888.\u00a0Own the Podium. The messaging from the Canadian government\u2019s Olympic high-performance sport initiatives over the past 50 years makes the stakes clear: winning is important.<\/p>\n

Gone are the days of Canadian athletes being satisfied with simply making it to the Olympics. An expectation of excellence now pervades the Olympic program. Athletes are considered ambassadors of their countries and symbols of national pride.<\/p>\n

This year in Italy, that expectation will be front and centre\u00a0amid recent geopolitical tensions. It\u2019s no wonder\u00a0the new slogan\u00a0is one that evokes unity and patriotism: \u201cWe Are All Team Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

While there is little doubt that all Olympic athletes are expected to play and perform under pressure, Canada\u2019s historical successes at the Winter Games have created heightened expectations. The country set a record for the most gold medals won by a host nation at a single Winter Olympics\u00a0with 14 in Vancouver in 2010.<\/p>\n

When I ask my undergraduate students which Canadian athletes they believe feel the most pressure to win gold at the Olympics, most say hockey, though that may be too simple an answer.<\/p>\n

Curling hopefuls<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is certainly true that Canadians expect strong results from men\u2019s and women\u2019s hockey teams, and for good reason. Canada is\u00a0the most successful ice hockey nation in Olympic history, with 23 medal wins.<\/p>\n

Yet many Canadian hockey fans recognize the strength of other hockey nations. Canadians both love and loathe the Swedes, Finns, Slovaks, Czechs and Americans that play for their National Hockey League teams. A loss to those players and those teams is devastating, but explicable.<\/p>\n

Curling presents a different story. Here, expectations are clear: gold medals. Casual Olympic viewers may not realize that\u00a0Scots and Swiss make up the top-three men\u2019s curling rinks in the world, and the Swiss women have won two of the last four World Championships.<\/p>\n

That said, Canada\u2019s teams are formidable. The men\u2019s rink, led by Brad Jacobs, won gold in 2014 in Sochi, and the women\u2019s rink, led by Rachel Homan,\u00a0is currently ranked No. 1 in the world. Far from a golden\u00a0fait accompli, Canada\u2019s curlers are among the most heavily scrutinized athletes heading to Milan Cortina.<\/p>\n

Speed skating hopefuls<\/strong><\/p>\n

Canada has realistic medal potential in both short-track and long-track speed skating. Laurent Dubreuil is a defending silver medallist in the 1000m and finished fourth in the 500m in Beijing 2022.<\/p>\n

Ivanie Blondin and Isabelle Weidemann are\u00a0members of the defending gold medallist Team Pursuit team\u00a0and silver medallists in other distances. The Team Pursuit event is among the most exciting long-track events at the Olympics and certainly worth circling on the viewing calendar.<\/p>\n

On short track, the location of some of the highest drama and most intense finishes at every Olympics, Canada has some serious medal potential with a full complement of 10 skaters headed to Milan.<\/p>\n

The women\u2019s team features four-time Olympic medallist Kim Boutin,\u00a0who will compete at her third consecutive Olympic Winter Games. Boutin received medals in all three women\u2019s individual events at PyeongChang 2018 and later added bronze in the 500m at Beijing 2022. Over the past decade, she has earned 17 medals at the ISU World Short Track Championships and two more world titles at the 2025 Championships, winning gold in the women\u2019s 3000m relay and the mixed relay.<\/p>\n

Freestyle skiing hopefuls<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many Canadians might assume speed skating has produced the most medals for Canada over the years. Speed skating accounts for 23 total events between short and long-track at this year\u2019s Olympics, and Canada\u00a0won their first speed skating medal in 1932.<\/p>\n

However, despite it only being added as a full medal sport in 1992, Canada has won 30 total medals in a different sport, including the distinction of Canada\u2019s first home gold medal won by\u00a0Alexandre Bilodeau in 2010: freestyle skiing.<\/p>\n

Equal parts agility and artistry, freestyle skiing is definitely one of Games\u2019 most beguiling and exhilarating watches.<\/p>\n

Comprised of eight separate disciplines, Canada has numerous medal threats, headlined by \u201cgreatest mogul skiier of all time\u201d Mika\u00ebl Kingsbury, fresh off of a Jan. 10 victory in men\u2019s moguls at Val St. C\u00f4me, marking a staggering 100 career World Cup victories for the skier.<\/p>\n

And then, there\u2019s hockey.<\/p>\n

Ice hockey hopefuls<\/strong><\/p>\n

The centre of the women\u2019s hockey is a\u00a0binary system: two stars bound together, their combined gravity ordering the remaining planets, paling in size and importance to their suns.<\/p>\n

This year marks a new era, as professional women\u2019s players will compete for the first time at the Olympics, following the establishment of the Professional Women\u2019s Hockey League.<\/p>\n

Since 1990, only one team other than Canada and the U.S. \u2014\u00a0Finland in 2019\u00a0\u2014 has reached the Ice Hockey World Championships gold medal game. Canada won bronze that year.<\/p>\n

Gold medallists in five of seven previous Olympics, the Canadian women\u2019s team enters as a slight\u00a0underdog this year, with\u00a0Team USA defending their World Champion title.<\/p>\n

Given the storied history of these two teams and the heightened tension currently between the two nations, their matchup will assuredly be among the most exciting 60 minutes played this year.<\/p>\n

On the men\u2019s side,\u00a0a long, protracted wait is over: NHL players return to the Olympics. Canadian captain Sidney Crosby will be\u00a0aiming for his third Olympic gold.<\/p>\n

Alongside the return of pro talent comes a familiar source of tension for Canadian hockey fans:\u00a0consternation around goaltending.<\/p>\n

Canada remains one of the tournament\u2019s favourites,\u00a0shimmering with a galaxy of superstars on forward and defence, yet persistent\u00a0concerns over net-minding continue to fuel doubt among some fans.<\/p>\n

No shortage of Olympic hopefuls<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are many more medal hopefuls for Team Canada heading into Milan Cortina, from\u00a0alpine skiiers and ski cross athletes\u00a0to\u00a0snowboarding, figure skating and freestyle skiing.<\/p>\n

But simply taking in the Games when possible can be a rewarding experience in and of itself.<\/p>\n

While cynicism and\u00a0skepticism\u00a0towards the International Olympic Committee\u00a0and\u00a0Olympic movement\u00a0are certainly warranted, the Winter Olympics will provide the opportunity for Canadian athletes to achieve global sporting excellence.<\/p>\n

While we know that pressure creates diamonds, these athletes may soon prove that it can produce gold, too.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taylor McKee, Assistant Professor of Sport Management at Brock University, recently published a piece in The Conversation about the Canadian athletes hoping to reach the podium at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":107445,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,6],"tags":[28,4753,7488,57,10657,5512],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107443"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107443"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107446,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107443\/revisions\/107446"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}