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Rahneva announced her retirement too
 
Calgary shutting down is really showing with how empty the sliding cupboard is

Such is figure skating.

Word was she'd be skating for another country after last years Grand Prix and the Mimar split

Speaking of the Grand Prix, rough showings for the Canadians at the final

Gilles/Poirier fell in the RD and was sitting in 6th (last), had the 2nd best FD and moved up one spot... Lajoie/Lagha finished in 4th.

Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps withdrew due to injury... word is they've expected to do some major retooling of programs heading into the winter

Rahneva announced her retirement too
 
Calgary shutting down is really showing with how empty the sliding cupboard is

World Cup kicked off with a couple mixed relays

Single mixed wasn't pretty. Lunder and Pletz paired up and finished 20th. Both really struggled shooting the first time around, and were battling for dead last... but did improve the second half and picked up 4 spots

Surprisingly good showing for the full mixed relay considering I think this was the first ever WC race for three of them, managed not to get lapped and finished 16th. During Moser's leg they got up to about 12th briefly.

Runnals interestingly did not compete.

Ski times continue to be an issue pretty much across the board, but such is our fate it seems

World Cup kicked off with a couple mixed relays

Single mixed wasn't pretty. Lunder and Pletz paired up and finished 20th. Both really struggled shooting the first time around, and were battling for dead last... but did improve the second half and picked up 4 spots

Surprisingly good showing for the full mixed relay considering I think this was the first ever WC race for three of them, managed not to get lapped and finished 16th. During Moser's leg they got up to about 12th briefly.

Runnals interestingly did not compete.

Ski times continue to be an issue pretty much across the board, but such is our fate it seems

On the ISU feed they mentioned the last time she won a 3,000 it was in that same arena in 2019. 

Nice to see Fish seems to be finding his form again on the mens side after a few years of struggles. 

But geesh, that Stolz is gonna be a monster in 2026. 

On the ISU feed they mentioned the last time she won a 3,000 it was in that same arena in 2019. 

Nice to see Fish seems to be finding his form again on the mens side after a few years of struggles. 

But geesh, that Stolz is gonna be a monster in 2026. 

On the ISU feed they mentioned the last time she won a 3,000 it was in that same arena in 2019. 

Nice to see Fish seems to be finding his form again on the mens side after a few years of struggles. 

But geesh, that Stolz is gonna be a monster in 2026. 

World / IBU cup teams announced: https://sirc.ca/news/eight-canadian-biathletes-named-to-the-ibu-world-cup-team/

Thru half the Grand Prix season, we're probably about where we were expecting

Ice Dance: Gilles/Poirier won Skate Canada as expected. One of the few top teams to stay on their feet for their full skates. Lajoie/Lagha finished second, had a fall for weren't as close as we would have likes. Probably a safe bet we'll see both at the Grand Prix final. I'd kinda like to see Lajoie/Lagha get a big push, but this discipline unfortunately seems more about waiting their turn... imagine we'll see a bunch of retirements after Milan. 
 
Pairs: Stellato-Dudek/Deschamps had a rough long program but won easily. Also surely will be at the GP final. Pereira/Michaud had a nightmare of a skate at theirs. They still might be able to sneak into the final if they do well at their second event, pairs is wide open
 
Women: Schizas has two very good skates and almost snuck onto the podium at Skate Canada. Her ceiling is probably a top 8-10, and maybe qualifying Canada an extra spot (or opportunity for a spot). Ruiter had a rough outting. 
 
Men: The less said the better. We may not even qualify a man for 2026, and may have to rely on a pity spot for the team event. 
 
2026 Medal Outlook:

- Best chance is probably pairs. Stellato-Dudek are reigning World Champs, and while unpredictable the field isn't terrible deep (if they let the Russians back in, that will make it a lot tougher)
 
- Ice Dance is a bit of a coin flip. Politics still overwhelms the event even with the Russians out, and Gilles/Poirier seem to be able to get early season results, but not treated as well come Worlds and Olympics. Lajoie/Lagha will hopefully be nipping at their heels now. 
 
- Women's/Men's - No chance of a medal, hell, the men might not even qualify the skater
 
- Team - Assuming the Russians stay banned, bronze will be battled between Italy and Canada. Probably gonna get some home cooking, so I'd give the edge to Italy... but ultimately it will come down to avoiding a meltdown in the men's and women's short programs. Italy has stronger men, but inconsistent... and same goes for the Canadian women. If we can get strong short programs from our singles skaters, that could get us on the podium

Will be strange watching the World Cup without the Gow's. They were kinda the last echo of the Vancouver 2010 funding boom.

It's too bad, by 2014 and 2015 the program was really solid and if we had kept even moderate funding could have been a top 5-8 nation. Sadly, the money was long gone by then, and those athletes started peeling off and we've faded back to being minnows

Brunelle blasted the field on the penultimate leg of the relay Saturday, it was surprising. Other than Boutin it's a young team, but surprisingly deep. They aren't favourites in individual races, but they contend regularly, it's not surprising to see them get into semi's and finals anymore
 
Nice change from the '98 thru '14 cycles when we might have one strong women, and everyone else just kinda hung on for dear life

The short track program has sure became a machine over the last decade. Incredible depth. Especially nice seeing so many good skaters on the women's side after a couple decades of being so far behind the likes of China and Korea. Which is good, cause now there are a lot of countries that are producing really good skaters now

Thru half the Grand Prix season, we're probably about where we were expecting

Ice Dance: Gilles/Poirier won Skate Canada as expected. One of the few top teams to stay on their feet for their full skates. Lajoie/Lagha finished second, had a fall for weren't as close as we would have likes. Probably a safe bet we'll see both at the Grand Prix final. I'd kinda like to see Lajoie/Lagha get a big push, but this discipline unfortunately seems more about waiting their turn... imagine we'll see a bunch of retirements after Milan. 
 
Pairs: Stellato-Dudek/Deschamps had a rough long program but won easily. Also surely will be at the GP final. Pereira/Michaud had a nightmare of a skate at theirs. They still might be able to sneak into the final if they do well at their second event, pairs is wide open
 
Women: Schizas has two very good skates and almost snuck onto the podium at Skate Canada. Her ceiling is probably a top 8-10, and maybe qualifying Canada an extra spot (or opportunity for a spot). Ruiter had a rough outting. 
 
Men: The less said the better. We may not even qualify a man for 2026, and may have to rely on a pity spot for the team event. 
 
2026 Medal Outlook:

- Best chance is probably pairs. Stellato-Dudek are reigning World Champs, and while unpredictable the field isn't terrible deep (if they let the Russians back in, that will make it a lot tougher)
 
- Ice Dance is a bit of a coin flip. Politics still overwhelms the event even with the Russians out, and Gilles/Poirier seem to be able to get early season results, but not treated as well come Worlds and Olympics. Lajoie/Lagha will hopefully be nipping at their heels now. 
 
- Women's/Men's - No chance of a medal, hell, the men might not even qualify the skater
 
- Team - Assuming the Russians stay banned, bronze will be battled between Italy and Canada. Probably gonna get some home cooking, so I'd give the edge to Italy... but ultimately it will come down to avoiding a meltdown in the men's and women's short programs. Italy has stronger men, but inconsistent... and same goes for the Canadian women. If we can get strong short programs from our singles skaters, that could get us on the podium

The short track program has sure became a machine over the last decade. Incredible depth. Especially nice seeing so many good skaters on the women's side after a couple decades of being so far behind the likes of China and Korea. Which is good, cause now there are a lot of countries that are producing really good skaters now

The short track program has sure became a machine over the last decade. Incredible depth. Especially nice seeing so many good skaters on the women's side after a couple decades of being so far behind the likes of China and Korea. Which is good, cause now there are a lot of countries that are producing really good skaters now

Will be strange watching the World Cup without the Gow's. They were kinda the last echo of the Vancouver 2010 funding boom.

It's too bad, by 2014 and 2015 the program was really solid and if we had kept even moderate funding could have been a top 5-8 nation. Sadly, the money was long gone by then, and those athletes started peeling off and we've faded back to being minnows

The ISU is really trying to push these apparent team names for the countries... extremely cringy 

Don't follow the junior ranks much, but at the Olympics trials there were a couple U20 women sprinters, Jorai Oppong-Nketiah and Alexia Jones, that look to have a lot of potential 

Christopher Morales-Williams
Laon Kim
Summer Mcintosh
Isabella Holmgren 
Charlotte Simoneau (weightlifting)
 
Just of the top of my head

Thought the same thing about Summer. Glad for everyone either way. 

Can't argue McIntosh and Katzberg

I was thinking they might go with Katzberg and Rogers and save McIntosh for LA28 opening ceremony. With Swimming moving to week 2 for that one, there wouldn't be any scheduling conflicts, and seeing she already went home. 

So they all picked up a bacterial infection from contaminated food at the hotel they were staying at. Cyclists and runners (Aaron brown, Michelle Harrison, Lauren gale, Zoe shear) all got it but they were able to quickly treat it with antibiotics and responded well. But the cycling team almost all debated on dropping out of the Olympics entirely but decided to compete since it’s the Olympics. They were surprised they even could complete there races the way they did. Evan Dunfee was apparently throwing up for 8 hours straight before his race. So his fifth place finish is even crazier.

What really impressed me was not just the total medals, but the breadth. 
 
We won medals in fencing, pole vault, boxing, hammer... stuff we never done before, or haven't done in forever. And even in a wide variety of stuff that we've had occasional successes in. 

And the nice thing is there is still room for improvement. Looking forward to LA28!

 

What really impressed me was not just the total medals, but the breadth. 
 
We won medals in fencing, pole vault, boxing, hammer... stuff we never done before, or haven't done in forever. And even in a wide variety of stuff that we've had occasional successes in. 

And the nice thing is there is still room for improvement. Looking forward to LA28!