Steven Dubois crowned Olympic champion, women’s short track relay wins bronze

It was a fruitful day for Canada’s short track speed skating team on Wednesday at Milano Cortina 2026.

Steven Dubois was crowned Olympic champion in the men’s 500 metres and just half an hour earlier, Courtney Sarault, Kim Boutin, Florence Brunelle and Danaé Blais captured the bronze medal in the women’s 3000-metre relay.

With the Olympic title, the 28-year-old Dubois achieved one of the few remaining goals he had yet to check off his list: becoming an Olympic champion in an individual event.

“That was the last individual medal I was missing. I’ve done everything in my career,” said Dubois. “I didn’t want to set becoming Olympic champion as a goal, but today I woke up and that’s what I wanted. I did everything I could to win that medal,” said Dubois who admitted he had struggled to sleep over the past two days due to stress.

In the final, Dubois left nothing to chance, taking the lead right from the start before slowing the pace of the race. The bold strategy paid off. The Canadian held the front position, limiting passing opportunities for his rivals, and successfully fended them off over four and a half laps to finish ahead of Dutch skaters Melle Van ’t Wout and his brother Jens, who won silver and bronze respectively.

The other Canadian in the 500-metre final, William Dandjinou, was disqualified. Competing in his first Olympic Games, Dandjinou reached the finals in all three individual distances in Milan but was unable to reach the podium.

For Dubois, a three-time medallist at Beijing 2022, the Olympic title came after a difficult start to the season. After suffering a hip injury in the fall, he returned to training just weeks before the opening stop of the ISU World Tour in Montreal.

“I didn’t want to arrive at the end of the season disappointed,” he said. “The season started poorly with my injury. I didn’t want to say it stopped me from doing what I wanted to do. I had time to train, and I didn’t want any excuses. I really wanted to race to win.”

Although he won silver in the mixed 3000-metre relay earlier in the Games, Dubois fell short of expectations in his first two individual events. After crashing in the 1000-metre qualifying rounds on Feb. 10, he finished sixth in the 1500 metres four days later after another fall in a crowded nine-skater final.

“The fall in the 1000 metres really hurt me mentally,” Dubois said. “I came in as world champion, always on the World Cup podium, and I couldn’t even race one of my favourite distances because of bad luck. It was hard to reset.”

Dubois was already familiar with the Olympic podium in the 500 metres, having won bronze in the event four years ago at Beijing 2022. Now a five-time Olympic medallist, he also captured silver in the 1500 metres and contributed to Canada’s gold medal in the men’s 5000-metre relay at those Games.

After earning bronze in the women’s 3000-metre relay, the Canadian skaters experienced a wide range of emotions.

“We all went into that final aiming for gold,” said Boutin, now a six-time Olympic medallist. “It took us a bit of time to process what happened, but then we hugged each other and reminded ourselves how hard we worked to get there. We were happy just to be on the podium.”

In the final, Canada took the lead early before the Dutch team fell following a blade contact just before the halfway point of the 27-lap race.

The Canadians were still in front with only a few laps remaining when Blais lost her footing.

“I lost my footing for reasons I can’t really explain,” said Blais. “That’s short track, there’s often no explanation. After that, I told myself I couldn’t fall. I used everything I had left in my legs to get back into it, tried to block the Italian skater, which didn’t work because I had lost so much speed, and then tried to push Florence as hard as I could.”

Canada ultimately crossed the finish line behind South Korea, who won gold, and Italy, who took silver.

“We’re an extremely strong team, and we won’t hide the fact that we wanted gold, and I think we could have won gold,” said Blais, echoing Boutin’s remarks. “But we’re also very grounded and process-focused. We’ve worked for years for this moment. Once the emotions passed, we realized we could celebrate. One race doesn’t define us, the last four years do.”

With her sixth Olympic medal, Boutin has tied the medal total of long track speed skater Cindy Klassen and former short track teammate Charles Hamelin. The three now share the title of the most decorated Canadian athletes in Winter Olympic history.

“I came here with the goal of winning three medals,” said Boutin. “I have two so far, and it’s not over. Winning this medal as a team is incredibly satisfying.”

Her teammates highlighted the mentorship role played by the most experienced skater on the squad.

“Kim has been like a big sister,” said Blais. “She calms me down in competition and is so caring. She picked me up in tears after many races this season. Even when she had races coming up, she was there for me. She supported me through the toughest moments,” said Blais referring in part to a difficult period several months ago when her mother became seriously ill.

Sarault now has four medals at these Games. Only one Canadian woman has ever won more—Klassen, who captured five medals at Turin 2006.

Sarault said she savours each podium in a different way. “It’s not so much the medal that brings me joy, it’s the whole experience of the medal, it’s the whole race. It’s the journey that I’ve been on to get this medal and the people I get to experience this with. I think that’s what I’m holding on to more than just the medal. It’s like the journey to achieve what I’m achieving.”

Wednesday’s two medals bring Canada’s short track speed skating total to five at these Games. More could be added on Friday, when the final two Olympic finals in the discipline take place. Canada has qualified for the men’s 5000-metre relay final, while the women’s 1500 metres will close out the Olympic short track program.