With the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics underway, a familiar question is under close observation: How many medals has Team Canada won? As the medals pile up, Canadians are wondering (with their fingers crossed) whether this year could mark the country’s best showing at the Winter Games historically.
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Canada’s best Winter Olympic performance ever
Canada’s Sidney Crosby celebrates his game winning goal during overtime period men’s ice hockey gold medal final at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Sunday, Feb. 28, 2010. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson
(The Canadian Press)
Canada’s most impressive and successful showing was on home soil in 2010 when Canadian athletes bagged a record 14 gold medals at the Vancouver edition of the Winter Olympics. The 14 gold medals secured by Canada were the most of any nation that year — a Winter Olympics record at the time. Canada finished third on the table with 26 medals to its name spread among 14 gold, 7 silver and 5 bronze medals.
However, when it comes to the total number of medals won by Canada at any past edition of the Winter Games, the country’s best performance came at PyeongChang 2018, where Canadian athletes brought home 29 medals — 14 gold, 8 silver and 10 bronze — again, finishing third in the overall standings.
A look back at Canada’s performance at Beijing 2022
Canada closed the last edition of the Winter Games in Beijing placed fourth in the overall medal standings, securing 26 medals in total, out of which only 4 were gold with the rest split among 8 silver and 14 bronze medals — a solid performance that fell short of expectations in terms of golds, making it the nation’s lowest gold tally since 1994.
BEIJING, CHINA – FEBRUARY 20: Members of Team Canada and Team Italy make their way around the Beijing National stadium during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony on Day 16 of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics at Beijing National Stadium on February 20, 2022 in Beijing, China. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)
(David Ramos via Getty Images)Will Canada break its medal record at Milano Cortina 2026?
Team Canada arrived in Italy with rising stars across a variety of sports like speed skating, freestyle skiing, snowboarding, curling and ice hockey among other sports, putting on display an advantage in consistently supplying depth of athletes across multiple sporting events.
With an impressive lot leading the charge for Team Canada across major sports, the country has strong chances of matching or surpassing PyeongChang 2018 total of 29 medals.
Key figures in the Canadian contingent to look out for include Isabelle Weidemann, Mikaël Kingsbury, and Laurent Dubreuil, among several other returning medalists from past Games and early podium favourites.
Back home, Canadians are hoping Team Canada’s 2026 showing at the Milano Cortina will shatter records previously set and signal a new era — at a time when global tensions make national pride on the world stage more crucial than ever.
Bookmark this page by Yahoo News Canada for daily medal updates, highlights and breakdowns of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.