Canada logged another four-medal day at the Beijing Winter Olympics on day six, with silverware in speed skating, freestyle skiing, snowboarding and alpine skiing.
The country has now won 12 medals at the 2022 Games.
Here are the highlights of Canada’s performance on day six of the Winter Olympics, which ran from Wednesday evening into Thursday morning.
Speed Skating
Isabelle Weidemann added to her Olympic trophy cabinet after picking up silver in the women’s 5,000-metre speed skating final.
Weidemann skated a time of 6:48.18 for her second medal of the 2022 Games. Irene Schouten of the Netherlands skated 6:43.51 for a new Olympic record and the gold medal, while Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic won bronze with a time of 6:50.09.
The 26-year-old Calgary resident won the bronze medal in the women’s 3,000-metre speed skating race on Saturday.
She will chase a third medal Tuesday with teammates Ivanie Blondin and Valerie Maltais in the women’s team pursuit.
Snowboarding
Canada’s Eliot Grondin won the silver medal in a thrilling photo finish in the men’s snowboard cross.
Grondin crossed the finish line just 0.02 seconds behind Austria’s Alessandro Haemmerle, throwing himself across in the hopes of claiming the gold and prompting a delay in the final results as the judges reviewed the tape.
The 20-year-old native of Sainte-Marie, Que., led the pack in every elimination round, setting himself up in a strong position for a medal.
He was once again leading the final four during the difficult first half of the course, only for Haemmerle to overtake him, forcing Grondin to play catch-up to the very end.
Italy’s Omar Visintin took the bronze.
Liam Moffatt and Kevin Hill, also of Canada, finished third and fourth respectively in their 1/8 final heats and failed to move on to further rounds.
In the women’s halfpipe final, Elizabeth Hosking did her best to crack the top three, managing a score of 73.0 in her first run and 79.25 in the second with some impressive tricks. But a fall in her third run kept her in sixth place overall.
Fellow Canadian Brooke Dhondt scored 66.75 in her first run but fell in the next two, putting her in 10th place.
Defending champion Chloe Kim of the U.S. proved to be untouchable, cruising her way to another gold medal.
Freestyle Skiing
Quebec residents Marion Thenault, Miha Fontaine and Lewis Irving earned Canada a bronze medal in the mixed-team aerials final at the Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou, China.
It was the first bronze ever awarded in the freestyle skiing event, which made its debut in Beijing.
Canada was among six nations appearing in the qualifying stage, and advanced to the medal round with a combined score of 326.94, making them the third seed team in the last stage. China, the United States and Switzerland also advanced.
In the final, the Canadians locked in a combined score of 290.98 for bronze. The United States won gold, while China took home silver.
Alpine Skiing
Canada’s James Crawford won the bronze medal in the men’s alpine combined skiing event.
Crawford had the second-fastest time in the downhill section, barely behind Austria’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, setting the Toronto native up for success in the slalom section.
The Canadian was still just a fraction of a second behind Kilde, who took the silver after Austria’s Johannes Strolz stormed into the gold medal position. The three managed to hang on to their spots as the rest of the pack made their way down the mountain.
Fellow Canadians Broderick Thompson and Brodie Seger finished eighth and ninth, respectively, while Trevor Philp skied out on the slalom course after a 19th-place finish in the downhill.
Hockey
The men’s hockey team won its Beijing debut against defending silver medallists Germany 5-1.
Alex Grant kicked off the scoring for Canada in the first period, and was joined by teammates Ben Street, Daniel Winnik, Maxim Noreau and Jordan Weal as goal scorers on the scoresheet.
Canada will now face its archrivals the United States Friday night in the second Group A match. The U.S. beat China 8-0 in its debut Thursday.
Team Canada is looking to reclaim gold after being forced to settle for bronze at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang.
Figure Skating
Keegan Messing scored a 172.37 in the men’s single free skate, putting him in 11th place in the single program after his well-received short program performance Tuesday.
Nathan Chen of the United States won the gold medal with a near-perfect free skate and a record-setting short program.
The ranking Canadian champion, Messing was the favourite to earn a figure skating medal for Canada, but was kept from participating in the team skate after testing positive for COVID-19 before he was set to fly to Beijing last week.
Curling
The men’s curling team narrowly won its round-robin session against Norway 6-5. The team will face Switzerland next on Friday.
The men’s team is now 2-0 in round-robin play at the Olympics.
On the women’s side, skip Jennifer Jones lead Canada to a 12-7 win against South Korea in its round robin opening game.
Canada will play Japan next on Friday.
Luge
Canada did not finish in a medal position in the mixed-team relay luge competition at the Yanqing National Sliding Centre in Beijing.
Canada was represented by Trinity Ellis, Reid Watts and the pair of Tristan Walker and Justin Snith in the event; the team finished sixth while Germany won gold, Austria silver and Latvia bronze.
Skeleton
Blake Enzie finished 19th in his first heat of the men’s competition and stayed there after his second run, with a combined time of 2:03:41 — just over three seconds behind the fastest time.
He’ll have to make up ground in the third run on Friday if he hopes to make it to the fourth and final heat, which will determine the medal rankings.
Cross-Country Skiing
Dahria Beatty was the fastest of four Canadians racing in the women’s 10-kilometre classic, placing 18th overall.
Katherine Stewart-Jones finished in 36th place, followed by Cendrine Browne in 48th and Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt in 61st.
Norway’s Therese Johaug, who won the first gold medal of the 2022 Games, claimed her second gold in Beijing.
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