From frozen rinks to mountain peaks, Team Canada’s brightest stars are preparing for their biggest stage yet. At Milano-Cortina 2026, these five athletes and teams carry not only medal hopes, but years of sacrifice, resilience, and pride.
Connor McDavid and Men’s Hockey
For more than a decade, Olympic men’s hockey has been missing its brightest stars. This year, in Milano-Cortina, National Hockey League (NHL) players are finally back—and no performance is more anticipated than Connor McDavid’s. After watching from afar in 2018 and 2022, the world’s most electrifying player will finally don the maple leaf on the sport’s biggest stage, alongside fellow superstars Nathan MacKinnon, Nick Suzuki, and Cale Makar.
For a generation raised on Sidney Crosby’s golden goal, this tournament signals a new era. Canada enters as a favourite, with a likely showdown against the United States looming. McDavid’s Olympic debut gives him a chance to define his legacy beyond the NHL and lead his country when it matters most.
Marie-Philip Poulin and Women’s Hockey
When the pressure is highest, Marie-Philip Poulin rises like few can. The Canadian captain remains the only hockey player—men’s or women’s—to score in four Olympic gold-medal games. Her two goals in the 2022 final against the United States secured her third Olympic title and reaffirmed her ‘Captain Clutch’ reputation.
She arrives in Italy alongside dozens of Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) players, representing a new era of women’s hockey since the league’s inception in January 2024.
Since women’s hockey debuted in the 1998 Nagano Olympics, gold has never left North America. Nearly every final has been a Canada-USA showdown, decided by inches and nerves.
Canada will once again chase greatness in women’s hockey’s fiercest rivalry with Poulin at the helm.
Flag bearers Mikaël Kingsbury and Marielle Thompson
Few athletes embody sustained excellence like Mikaël Kingsbury. The most decorated male moguls skier in World Cup history, he arrives with three Olympic medals, nine world titles, and 100 World Cup wins—yet still chases perfection on every run.
Alongside him stands Marielle Thompson, one of ski cross’s most consistent and courageous competitors. Since winning Olympic gold in 2014, she has remained a fixture on podiums around the world, collecting more than 70 career top-three finishes and multiple Crystal Globes.
Chosen as flag bearers, Kingsbury and Thompson represent longevity, resilience, and relentless ambition. In sports where one mistake can end everything, they have remained elite through injuries, pressure, and changing generations. In Italy, they carry not only the flag, but a deep legacy of Canadian winter sport excellence.
Ski half-pipe phenom Cassie Sharpe
Cassie Sharpe’s return to elite skiing is one of Team Canada’s most inspiring stories. The 2018 Olympic halfpipe champion and 2022 silver medallist stepped away to become a mother, unsure if she would ever return.
Two years later, she is back and thriving. In her first season returning, Sharpe earned World Cup podiums, won X Games gold for the first time in six years, and became the first mother to claim the title.
With her daughter watching from home, Sharpe now competes with renewed purpose. Her journey reflects both the unseen challenges athletes face and the courage it takes to chase greatness again.
Figure skaters Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps
At an age when most figure skaters have long retired, Deanna Stellato-Dudek is just getting started. In 2024, alongside partner Maxime Deschamps, she captured Canada’s first world title in pairs skating in six years. She completed this feat at age 40.
Once a teenage prodigy, she was forced into early retirement by injuries. Years later, she faced a defining question at a 2016 retreat: What would she do if she could not fail? Her answer—win Olympic gold—pushed her back onto the ice weeks later to begin training in pairs.
After moving to Montreal, the duo steadily climbed the ranks before breaking through on home ice in 2024. Their story is proof that perseverance has no expiration date.
