5 Team Canada sport to watch this weekend: November 29-December 1
It’s an action-packed weekend ahead for Team Canada athletes and fans with World Cup seasons in full swing across the suite of winter sports.
The “King of Moguls” will kick off his campaign while Canadian lugers will launch feet-first into their 2024-25 season, and Team Canada’s long track speed skaters look to continue their medal streak.
Here’s what you don’t want to miss:
Freestyle Skiing – Moguls
The FIS World Cup season for moguls kicks off this weekend in Ruka, Finland, providing eager Team Canada fans a chance to see the “King of Moguls”, Mikaël Kingsbury, back in action.
This season will be Kingsbury’s 16th on the World Cup circuit. Kingsbury enters the season with an incredible record of 90 World Cup wins, 129 World Cup podiums, and 26 Crystal Globes. Last season he surpassed Ingemar Stenmark to go down in history as the male athlete with the most World Cup victories in any skiing discipline.
Kingsbury is joined by some younger teammates, including Elliot Vaillancourt, who will be looking to make his mark this season after snagging his first FIS World Cup podiums last season.
Alpine Skiing
Canada will field a strong team of women at the FIS World Cup stop in Killington, Vermont this weekend. Saturday’s giant slalom will mark a return to competition for two-time Olympian Valérie Grenier, who suffered a major crash in January, during what was shaping up to be a stellar season for the 28-year-old.
In Sunday’s slalom race, Team Canada fans will want to keep an eye out for world champion Laurence St-Germain, who finished 10th and 11th in the two World Cup slalom races held so far this season.
Team Canada will look forward to putting on a show on home snow next weekend at the FIS World Cup giant slalom event in Mont Tremblant, Quebec.
Luge
Team Canada luge athletes will slide into the first FIL World Cup of the season this weekend in Lillehammer, Norway. It’s the first time in four years that the elite luge circuit is racing on the track built for the 1994 Olympic Winter Games.
Team Canada will be represented in the women’s singles event by Caitlin Nash, Trinity Ellis, and Carolyn Maxwell. Devin Wardrope and Cole Zajanski will represent the maple leaf in the men’s doubles event.
Long Track Speed Skating
Seventeen Team Canada speed skaters will continue their ISU World Cup campaign with a stop in Beijing, China.
The team delivered four medals at last weekend’s season opener in Nagano, Japan. Ivanie Blondin reigned victorious in the women’s 3000m, and also notched a silver in the mass start and a bronze in the mixed relay with 20-year-old Yankun Zhao. Laurent Dubreuil notched a silver in the men’s 500m.
Competition will take place on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Freestyle Skiing and Snowboard – Big Air
Also in action in Beijing this weekend, Canadian freestyle skiers and snowboarders will be catching some big air at their respective FIS World Cup stops.
Among the Canadian men in the ski big air qualification round on Friday is Dylan Deschamps, who reached the podium at the first big air World Cup of the season in October in Chur, Switzerland. That final will take place on Sunday.
The big air competition for snowboarders will begin with qualification rounds on Saturday, followed by finals on Sunday.
Liam Brearley will be one to look out for, having claimed last season’s Crystal Globe for men’s snowboard slopestyle—the first Canadian to ever do so. Cameron Spalding is off to a strong start this season, having notched his first ever FIS World Cup victory winning the slopestyle event in Cardrona, New Zealand in September.
READ: Team Canada’s soaring snowboarding legacy continues with a new generation