It was a big first weekend of 2025 on the road to the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games. The Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Trials crowned the duo who will head on to the next stage of Olympic qualification, while a couple of world champions slid and flew their way into the top 10 on the skeleton and ski jumping World Cup circuits.
Here’s a quick look at what you might have missed:
Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant took a big step toward representing Canada in mixed doubles curling at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games by winning the Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Trials in Liverpool, Nova Scotia. Their 8-7 victory over Rachel Homan and Brendan Bottcher in Saturday’s final secured them a spot at the 2025 World Mixed Doubles Championship in Fredericton, New Brunswick where they’ll aim to clinch Olympic qualification for Canada and themselves.
Peterman and Gallant started strong, scoring three in the first end and extending their lead with a timely steal. Despite Homan and Bottcher’s attempt for a big score with a power play, Peterman and Gallant maintained control and went into the eighth end with a three-point lead. Gallant’s powerful throw just about cleared the house and Peterman’s final hit sealed the win, capping an undefeated tournament run.
READ: Peterman & Gallant win mixed doubles curling trials to take next step on Olympic journey
Gallant and Peterman are vying for their second Olympic appearances after competing at Beijing 2022, where Gallant won bronze with Team Gushue and Peterman was a member of Team Jones. Having already represented Canada twice at the mixed doubles worlds, highlighted by a silver medal in 2019, their dominant performance sets them up as strong contenders on the next step in their Olympic journey.
Racing on the track on which she became world champion last year, Hallie Clarke posted her third top-10 finish of the IBSF World Cup season. Clarke finished eighth in women’s skeleton in Winterberg, Germany after climbing three spots in the standings by clocking the fifth-fastest second run of the day. Clarke hadn’t competed since finishing seventh at the World Cup in Yanqing, China in late November.
In bobsleigh, Cynthia Appiah was the top Canadian in women’s monobob, placing 11th. That result was matched in the two-woman event by Bianca Ribi and Niamh Haughey, who were competing in their first World Cup of the season.
Alexandria Loutitt finished ninth in the first women’s normal hill event at the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup in Villach, Austria on Sunday. Her score of 235.6 left her 15.8 points back of a podium position. Loutitt had last placed in the top-10 in mid-December when she finished fifth in a large hill event in Engelberg, Switzerland.
Katherine Stewart Jones finished 14th in the final stage of the Tour de Ski, a 10km mass start freestyle at what will be the 2026 Olympic cross-country skiing venue in Val Di Fiemme, Italy. With that effort, the 2022 Olympian finished 16th in the overall women’s Tour de Ski standings after the seven stages. Her performance was highlighted by a fourth-place finish in the third stage, a 20km interval start freestyle in Toblach, Italy on New Year’s Eve. That is her career-best World Cup result. Stewart-Jones then placed seventh in the fourth stage, a 15km classic pursuit on New Year’s Day.
Antoine Cyr finished 18th in the men’s Tour de Ski standings. His performance was headlined by a ninth-place finish in the second stage, a 15km mass start classic in Toblach.
