Weekend recap: Shiffrin crashes, Kingsbury soars
Here's your weekly Olympics sports catchup
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Here's our weekly look at the top performances by Canada's Olympic athletes on Saturday and Sunday. But first, some news involving an international star.
Alpine skiing: Shiffrin crash costs her a big win
Mikaela Shiffrin was on the verge of becoming the first alpine skier ever to reach 100 World Cup wins when the American star was injured in a crash during Saturday's giant slalom race at Killington resort in Vermont.
Shiffrin led after the first run and had the finish line in sight on her final run when she lost an edge and went head-over-skis into the safety netting lining the course. She suffered a deep puncture wound on the right side of her abdomen but appeared to escape any other significant injuries, the U.S. ski team said. "Something stabbed me," Shiffrin said in a video she posted on social media. There's no timeline yet for her return.
A controversial new rule requires alpine skiers to wear airbags that deploy when they crash, but the special vests are only required for the downhill and the super-G — the fastest and most dangerous of the alpine disciplines. Serious injuries are far less common in the giant slalom and slalom.
Canada's Valerie Grenier finished ninth in the giant slalom — her first race since a devastating crash ended her season last January. Laurence St-Germain was a season-best seventh in Sunday's slalom.
Quebec's Mont-Tremblant was scheduled to host a pair of women's giant slaloms this coming weekend, but they were cancelled due to a lack of snow. The men will be at Colorado's Beaver Creek for the first downhill and super-G races of the season. Here's a look at the Canadians competing there.
Freestyle skiing: A special win for Kingsbury
World Cup moguls victories are almost routine for Canada's Mikaël Kingsbury, who came into the season opener in Finland with a record 90 of them alongside his eight world titles and 2018 Olympic gold medal. But Saturday's win was Kingsbury's first as a dad, and his three-month-old son Henrik was there for it. "It's so cool to have my family here and win in front of my kid," said Kingsbury, who called it a "top three" moment in his career.
WATCH | Kingsbury opens World Cup season in style in Finland:
Kingsbury won by a comfortable margin over Sweden's Walter Wallberg, who beat him for the Olympic gold in 2022, and Japan's Ikuma Horishima, who took the World Cup moguls championship from Kingsbury last season (Kingsbury retained the dual moguls and overall titles).
Canada's Maia Schwinghammer placed fourth in the women's event, matching the best World Cup moguls result of her career (she won a silver in dual moguls last year).
Curling: Homan wins another Slam
Canada's Rachel Homan skipped her team to a 6-5 win over Sweden's Anna Hasselborg in the women's final at the National on Sunday for their second consecutive Grand Slam title. The reigning world champs went undefeated all week in St. John's to extend their winning streak to 23 games and they're now 40-2 on the season. This was Homan's record-extending 17th career Grand Slam trophy.
WATCH | Homan defeats Hasselborg to win Kioti National crown:
Scotland's Bruce Mouat beat Canadian Brad Jacobs 5-3 in the men's final. Mouat's team has won all three men's Grand Slams so far this season.
The next Slam is the Masters in mid-January in Guelph, Ont.
Speed skating: A so-so weekend for Canada
Canada's long track speed skaters have set a high standard for themselves over the last few years. They won five medals at the 2022 Winter Olympics, a national-record 10 at the 2024 single-distances world championships in Calgary, and they opened the current World Cup season with four podium appearances (including a gold) a couple of weekends ago in Japan.
But their latest performance fell below those lofty standards as Canada finished with just two medals at the second World Cup stop in Beijing. Isabelle Weidemann took bronze in the women's 3,000m (matching her result from the 2022 Olympics on the same track) and Valérie Maltais earned silver in the women's mass start.
Canada was a bit unlucky, though. Ivanie Blondin, who won a medal of each colour at the World Cup opener, crossed the line second in the women's mass start but was disqualified for illegal contact. And Canada placed fourth in both the men's and women's team sprints.
American Jordan Stolz starred again, winning four individual gold medals for the fourth World Cup in a row.
The World Cup tour continues in January at Calgary's Olympic Oval.
Other notable Canadian results:
* Freestyle skier Dylan Deschamps won his second World Cup big air bronze of the season in Beijing. He was the only Canadian to qualify for a final in the Chinese capital, which also hosted snowboard big air events.
* Canadian track cyclist Dylan Bibic maintained his lead atop the men's endurance standings while Sarah Van Dam sits second in the women's endurance chase through three rounds of the Track Cycling Champions League. The final two rounds go this Friday and Saturday in England.
* The Canadian women's rugby sevens team finished eighth at the SVNS Series opener in Dubai. Canada earned a surprising silver medal at the Paris Olympics after upsetting Australia in the semifinals, but the top-seeded Aussies routed Canada 39-0 in Sunday's quarterfinals before beating Olympic champ New Zealand in the title match.
