Halfway through the Milano Cortina Games, Canada’s Olympic story feels a little like a thriller: plenty of momentum, a string of near-misses, and a clear sense that the biggest moments may still be ahead. The scoreboard shows three silver and five bronze medals so far — solid podium presence, but no golds yet — leaving the team short of the leaders in the gold-medal table even as it chases the 26-medal target set by the Canadian Olympic Committee and Own The Podium.
Those podiums didn’t come out of nowhere. Freestyle skiing and speed skating have produced the most encouraging breakthroughs. Ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier delivered an emotionally charged free dance to take bronze, a result made more resonant by Gilles’ recent health comeback. On the ice, Courtney Sarault added multiple medals to her résumé, while veteran Valerie Maltais captured her first individual long-track Olympic medal — a neat example of resilience paying off.
Yet the margins have been tiny. In men’s snowboard cross, Eliot Grondin again finished fractions of a second behind the winner. Canada’s short-track skaters have seen leads evaporate in the final laps — one athlete slipped off the podium after leading into the last turn. Those tight defeats underline a familiar gap: the team is close to the top step, but not quite there.
Those narrow losses are prompting action. Coaches are already tweaking tactics, rethinking heat lineups and sharpening recovery plans; several teams expect to finalize lineup changes after morning sessions. Officials say the adjustments are practical rather than panicked — aimed at converting near-podiums into gold-medal performances as the schedule tightens.
Team sports tell a mixed story. The women’s hockey squad reached the semifinals despite a norovirus-related postponement that disrupted routines, while the men’s team opened the tournament undefeated. Curling has offered highs and lows: the men’s rink showed early strength before a setback, and the women’s side has struggled for consistency in round-robin play.
Not everything has gone smoothly. A training crash knocked a high-profile snowboarder out of big air contention (though slopestyle may still be possible), and a handful of veteran athletes missed events briefly with minor injuries. Those incidents have reshaped parts of the first half of the Games, but they’ve also highlighted the team’s depth — several events still present genuine chances for medals, from the women’s team pursuit in long-track speedskating to relays and ski cross.
The mood in team rooms is cautiously optimistic. Coaches and leaders point to hard-fought podiums and the roster’s breadth as reasons to expect more medals in the second half. With multiple finals and medal rounds ahead, the pivotal weeks will be about execution: small tactical shifts, careful recovery, and seizing tight opportunities when they arrive. If Canada can turn a few near-misses into wins, the latter half of these Games could feel very different from the first.