Olympics

Olympic sports catchup: Canadian speed skaters shine

It was a jam-packed weekend of high-performance sport around the world, including Canadian short track stars Kim Boutin and Marianne St-Gelais capturing World Cup season titles in Seoul, while the long track team racked up podium finishes in Norway.

Kim Boutin and Marianne St-Gelais take overall short track crowns in 500m, 1,000m

Canadian speed skaters (from right to left) Kim Boutin, Ted-Jan Bloemen, Marianne St-Gelais and Ivanie Blondin all had successful weekends in competition. (Getty Images)

It was a jam-packed weekend of high-performance sport around the world, including Canadian medals in speed skating, figure skating, bobsleigh and luge.

Here's a look at what you may have missed.​​​

Speed skaters set the pace

It was a great weekend for both of Canada's speed skating teams as two short track stars wrapped up World Cup titles in Seoul, while the long track squad picked up four medals in a single day of competition in Stavanger, Norway.

Kim Boutin wins silver at short track World Cup event in Seoul

7 years ago
Duration 3:14
Canadian speed skater finishes 2nd in the women's 1000-metre final.

In the final short track World Cup event of the season, Canada's new kid on the block, Kim Boutin, wrapped up the season title in the women's 1,000-metre discipline, thanks to a silver-medal performance on Sunday. That came one day after teammate Marianne St-Gelais secured the 500m crown with a fourth-place result.

Charles Hamelin, Kim Boutin cruise to podium at short track World Cup

7 years ago
Duration 1:05
Both Canadians won medals in the 1,500m race in Seoul, South Korea

Canadian men also landed on the podium this weekend: Charles Hamelin won gold in the men's 1,500 (his second individual medal on the season) while Samuel Girard took bronze in the 1,000.

Canada's long track team may have failed to find the podium on Saturday (despite six top-10 finishes), but they rebounded in a big way on Sunday by bringing home a medal in all four events on the day, capturing a gold, two silvers and a bronze.

The gold came in the men's team sprint, featuring skaters Gilmore Junio, Alex Boisvert-Lacroix, and Vincent De Haitre. That team also won the gold last week in the Netherlands.

Canadian men sprint to gold in Norway

7 years ago
Duration 2:49
Vincent De Haitre, Gilmore Junio and Alex Boisvert-Lacroix skated their way to a gold medal in the men's team sprint event at the ISU Speed Skating World Cup in Stavanger, Norway.

Canada's Ivanie Blondin took home a silver in the women's 5,000-metre race, and Ted-Jan Bloemen grabbed a silver of his own in the men's 10,000. 

To round out the big day, the women's sprint team — Marsha Hudey, Kali Christ and Kaylin Irvine — won bronze. Hudey also added a silver medal in the women's 500 on Friday.

Canadian bobsledders hit the podium

There was plenty of Canadian content on the podium this weekend at the bobsleigh World Cup stop in Park City, Utah.

Canada's Humphries, Lotholz win silver in Park City

7 years ago
Duration 1:43
Kaillie Humphries and brakeman Melissa Lotholz continue hot start with 2nd straight bobsleigh podium finish.

Kaillie Humphries and Melissa Lotholz made it back-to-back weeks with a medal, cruising to a silver in the women's event.

Justin Kripps takes 4-man bobsleigh silver

7 years ago
Duration 1:45
Canadian pilot's time only 0.03 seconds off the winner in Park City.

Chris Spring earns 4-man bobsleigh bronze in Park City

7 years ago
Duration 1:09
Canadian pilot rounds out the podium with a time of 1:36.86.

Two Canadian men's sleds — piloted by Justin Kripps and Chris Spring — also took up a lot of space on the podium, scoring silver and bronze in the four-man competition.

Osmond locks up Grand Prix Final spot

Kaetlyn Osmond earned her place in next month's Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final, but it wasn't the result the Marystown, NL, skater was hoping for.

Kaetlyn Osmond falls to bronze at Internationaux de France

7 years ago
Duration 7:56
The 21-year-old slipped into third place after falling during her free skate program at the ISU Grand Prix Internationaux de France

Osmond led after the short program but slipped to a bronze-medal finish with a fall in her long program on Saturday.

Luge team sharp in World Cup debut

Canada's luge team relay squad got off on the right foot in Innsbruck, Austria, on Sunday.

Alex Gough, Mitchel Malyk, Tristan Walker, and Justin Snith combined to finish 0.358 seconds behind the powerhouse Germans to take silver in the season-opening event.

Canada slides onto the podium at Luge World Cup

7 years ago
Duration 3:35
Alex Gough, Mitchel Malyk, Tristan Walker and Justin Snith captured a silver medal after posting a time of 2:11.025 in the team relay at the FIL Luge World Cup in Innsbruck, Austria.

Canada finished fourth at the Sochi Games in team relay and is aiming for the podium in Pyeongchang.

With files from The Canadian Press