Olympic sports roundup: Canadians skate, soar to gold
Catch up on what you may have missed over the weekend
It was a jam-packed weekend of high-performance sport around the world, including gold-medal performances from Mikael Kingsbury, Max Parrot, and Canada's short track speed skating team.
Here's a look at what you may have missed.
Canadians dominant in short track
Canada's short track team showed no rust returning from a six-week World Cup layoff, piling up several medals in Dresden, Germany.
Saturday's haul consisted of gold medals for Marianne St-Gelais, Charles Hamelin and Kim Boutin, with Valerie Maltais taking bronze.
There was no slowing the Canadians down on Sunday as St-Gelais claimed her second gold medal in as many days, this time in the 500m. Teammate Jamie MacDonald earned bronze in the same event.
St-Gelais combined with Maltais, Boutin and Kasandra Bradette to win bronze in the women's 3,000 relay. Maltais also earned bronze in the women's 1,500.
Another weekend, another record for Kingsbury
Three Canadians skied their way onto the podium at a World Cup moguls event at Deer Lake, Utah on Thursday.
In the men's event, Mikael Kingsbury won gold and Philippe Marquis took bronze while veteran Justine Dufour-Lapointe finished with a strong second-place finish in the women's competition.
It was Kingsbury's 36th World Cup victory and 57th podium. He shared the record of most podiums with the legendary Edgar Grospiron — until Saturday when Kingsbury scored another gold medal in a dual moguls event.
Kingsbury edged out fellow Canadian Marc-Antoine Gagnon of Terrebonne, Que., in the final, while on the women's side, Andi Naude took silver.
Canadians topple neighbours for Sydney 7s title
Canada's women's rugby sevens team can add the Sydney Sevens cup to their trophy case after beating the United States 21-17 on Saturday in the cup final.
It's the third World Rugby Women's Sevens Series cup victory for the Canadians, with title wins at the Amsterdam Sevens in 2015 and the Clermont Sevens in 2016.
Parrot owns big air
Max Parrot continued his big air dominance on Saturday, winning gold at the Air + Style event in Innsbruck, Austria.
The win comes on the heels of an impressive X Games gold in big air last week in Aspen.
The 22-year-old from Bromont, Que., will have a chance to win the overall Air + Style title in Los Angeles on Feb. 19.
Rahneva's stellar rookie campaign continues
Canada's Mirela Rahneva won silver at a women's skeleton World Cup event on Friday behind world champion Tina Hermann of Germany.
Leading after the first run, Ottawa's Rahneva dropped one spot into second place in her final run down the 1,478-metre chute, clocking a time of one minute 48.31 seconds.
It was the fourth medal for the 28-year-old rookie on the skeleton World Cup circuit. Rahneva also has a gold and two bronze in just seven World Cup events this season.
Humphries gets back on the podium
Canada's Kaillie Humphries and Melissa Lotholz returned to the World Cup bobsleigh podium on Saturday, winning silver in Igls, Austria.
The win kept Humphries atop the overall standings despite a fourth consecutive gold for American pilot Elana Meyers Taylor. Fellow American Jamie Greubel Poser finished third.
Leman finds a silver lining
Canada's Brady Leman earned a silver medal on Saturday at a weather-shortened World Cup ski cross event in Feldberg, Germany.
The event was halted after the qualifying runs due to heavy snowfall, according to FIS. The results of that run were later confirmed as official by the governing body.
Brochu returns to SBX podium
Canada's Baptiste Brochu won bronze on Saturday at the World Cup snowboard cross event in Bansko, Bulgaria.
It was the first podium finish of the season for the Saguenay, Que. native, and his first since his gold medal in Veysonnaz, Switzerland last March.
With files from The Canadian Press