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On Thursday, we’ll be exactly 365 days from the start of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics — at least technically. Competition in northern Italy actually begins on Feb. 4, 2026, with a few mixed doubles curling games, and the next day features some women’s hockey and snowboard qualifying. But the opening ceremony on Feb. 6 officially kicks off the next 16 days of medal events.
Spoiler alert: Canadians are going to win a lot of medals. In 2022, they racked up 26 — exactly the country’s average over the past five Winter Games.
Here are 10 athletes who could help keep the hardware coming next year:
Connor McDavid: Due to the NHL’s hiatus from the Olympics and the demise of the World Cup, the premier hockey player of his generation hasn’t had a chance to represent his country in a best-on-best international event since the 2015 world juniors. That will change when McDavid suits up for Canada in the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off, an appetizer for NHL players’ return to the Olympics in 2026.
Marie-Philip Poulin: Canada’s clutch captain is the only hockey player to score in four Olympic gold-medal games. Her pair of goals in the 2022 women’s final in Beijing helped dethrone the archrival United States and gave Poulin her third gold in four Olympic appearances. Milan-Cortina will be the first Games since the creation of the Professional Women’s Hockey League, where the Montreal Victoire star currently leads all scorers with 10 goals in 14 games this season.
Will Dandjinou: Uncommonly tall for a short track speed skater, Dandjinou is head and shoulders above his competitors on the World Tour this season. The 23-year-old has piled up seven gold medals through the first four stops to take a commanding lead atop the men’s overall standings. Dandjinou is the only skater to win a race at every distance, so expect the 1,500m world champion to contend for several medals as an Olympic rookie.
Ivanie Blondin: After skating to Olympic gold in the women’s team pursuit and silver in the individual mass start in 2022, Blondin was Canada’s top performer at last year’s long track world championships in Calgary, winning gold in the team sprint and silvers in the team pursuit and mass start. She’s been the most productive Canadian on the World Cup circuit this season, winning five medals, including two golds, across the first four stops.
Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps: Last year in Montreal, this pairs duo delivered Canada its first figure skating world title since 2018. The Chicago-born Stellato-Dudek got her Canadian citizenship in December, clearing her to make her Olympic debut next year at the age of 42. Assuming she and Deschamps maintain their current level, they can help Canadian figure skating rebound from its 2022 medal shutout.
Mikaël Kingsbury: As he closes in on his 100th career World Cup win, the moguls GOAT remains the undisputed king of the hill at age 32. Kingsbury’s six victories in eight starts this season have him atop the World Cup standings again as he eyes his fourth Olympic medal next year. Make that fourth and fifth, because dual moguls has been added to the program, giving the 2014 Olympic moguls champ a shot at double gold.
Marielle Thompson: Speaking of 32-year-old former Olympic champs still at the top of their game, the 2014 women’s ski cross gold medallist won the World Cup title last year and has four wins in nine starts this season. Canada’s India Sherret currently tops the standings on the strength of greater consistency, but Thompson’s more boom-or-bust results might give her the higher ceiling.
Éliot Grondin: After winning two Olympic snowboard cross medals as a 20-year-old in 2022 (silver in the men’s event, bronze in the mixed team), Grondin captured his first World Cup championship last season in incredibly dominant fashion, winning seven golds and 10 total medals in 11 starts. A crash in the four-man final kept him off the podium in this season’s opener, but Grondin roared back to win both men’s competitions last weekend in China to reclaim the World Cup lead.
Cassie Sharpe: The 2018 Olympic ski halfpipe champion and 2022 silver medallist took the past couple of years off while becoming a mom. Sharpe, 32, returned to the pipe this season and quickly shook off any rust, grabbing a World Cup bronze in her third event back before winning gold at the Winter X Games for the first time in six years.
Jack Crawford: A couple weeks ago, Crawford scored Canada’s biggest alpine skiing World Cup victory in decades, becoming the first Canadian since 1983 to win the revered Kitzbühel downhill. That cemented his reputation as a big-race skier, which started at the 2022 Olympics when he grabbed a surprising bronze in the combined event and missed the downhill podium by just seven hundredths of a second. Crawford went on to win gold in the super-G at the 2023 world championships, so he’ll be a multi-medal threat once again.
