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Canada’s Isabelle Weidemann, Valérie Maltais, and Ivanie Blondin successfully defended Olympic speed skating gold Tuesday, prevailing over the Dutch in women’s team pursuit in Milan.
They covered six laps at Milano Speed Skating Stadium in two minutes 55.80 seconds while the Netherlands clocked 2:56.77.
Four years ago, Canada’s long track athletes set a Games record in Beijing to defeat defending champions Japan in 2:53.44. On Tuesday, Weidemann, Maltais and Blondin became the first repeat champions in the event since Germany in 2006 (Turin, Italy) and 2010 (Vancouver).
Weidemann, Maltais and Blondin join freestyle skiers Mikaël Kingsbury (dual moguls) and Megan Oldham (women’s big air) as Canadian champions in Italy, where the 207-member team has also earned four silver and five bronze medals.
Two hours before the women’s team pursuit final, Canada went 2:55.92 against the United States (3:00.14) in the semifinals, while the Dutch trio of Marijke Groenewoud, Joy Beune and Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong prevailed in 2:55.84 but was tested was Japan (2:55.95). Canada posted a 2:55.03 quarterfinal time on Saturday.
In Tuesday’s bronze showdown, Japan was victorious in 2:58.50 against the U.S. (3:02.00).
Canadian speed skaters Isabelle Weidemann, Valérie Maltais, and Ivanie Blondin defeated the Netherlands in the women’s team pursuit final at Milano Cortina 2026, to repeat as Olympic champions.
Weidemann, Maltais and Blondin carried plenty of momentum into these Games, having combined for eight individual World Cup medals this season (gold, four silver, three bronze) while reaching the podium three times in team pursuit and coming away with a victory and two silver medals.
Earlier at these Games, Maltais claimed bronze in the women’s 3,000 metres.
In the final team pursuit of 2025, Weidemann, Maltais and Blondin won gold in 2:57.20 to beat the Americans (2:57.29) and Japan (2:58.62) in Hamar, Norway for Canada’s first World Cup victory in the event since January 2024 in Salt Lake City.
The Canadian women also collected silver earlier this season in Salt Lake City and Calgary after not picking up a medal during the 2024-25 campaign.
