{"id":460189,"date":"2026-02-07T18:25:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T18:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/460189\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T18:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T18:25:10","slug":"2026-winter-olympics-day-1-recap-speed-skater-maltais-wins-bronze-for-team-canadas-first-medal-womens-hockey-team-to-make-debut-after-norovirus-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/460189\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Winter Olympics Day 1 Recap: Speed skater Maltais wins bronze for Team Canada’s first medal, women’s hockey team to make debut after norovirus concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Milano<\/p>\n

Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics – Speed Skating – Women’s 3000m – Milano Speed Skating Stadium, Milan, Italy – February 07, 2026. Valerie Maltais of Canada in action. REUTERS\/Yves Herman<\/p>\n

(REUTERS \/ Reuters)<\/p>\n

Welcome to the first full-day of competition at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, after a stunning opening ceremony<\/a> took place on Feb. 6. With 206 Canadian athletes set to compete throughout the Games, there will be tons of action to keep up with as Team Canada looks to secure podium finishes.<\/p>\n

That’s already started, with Val\u00e9rie Maltais claiming bronze in the women’s 3000-metre speed skating event, marking Team Canada’s first medal of these Olympics.<\/a><\/p>\n

Keep it locked to this page as we highlight and recap everything Team Canada is up to on Saturday, Feb. 7. That started bright and early with Canada competing in curling and various skiing events. Scheduled to finish the day is a women’s hockey match between Canada and Switzerland (3:10 p.m. EST\/12:10 p.m. PST), after there were initially norovirus concerns on the Swiss side. <\/a><\/p>\n

What to watch today for Team Canada<\/p>\n

12:45 p.m. EST: Ski jumping \u2014 Women’s individual – Normal Hill (1st round)<\/p>\n

1:05 p.m. EST: Mixed doubles Curling \u2014 Canada vs. Estonia (round robin)<\/p>\n

1:30 p.m. EST: Snowboard \u2014 Men\u2019s big air (medal event)<\/p>\n

1:45 p.m. EST: Figure skating \u2014 Team event (men’s short program)<\/p>\n

2:00 p.m. EST: Ski jumping \u2014 Women\u2019s individual (medal event)<\/p>\n

3:10 p.m. EST: Women\u2019s Hockey \u2014 Canada vs. Switzerland (group stage)<\/p>\n

4:05 p.m. EST: Figure skating \u2014 Team event (ice dance free dance)<\/p>\n

Val\u00e9rie Maltais wins Canada’s first medal of the 2026 Olympics, capturing bronze in women’s 3,000-metre speed skating<\/p>\n

Val\u00e9rie Maltais of La Baie, Que., is Canada’s first Olympic hero of the 2026 Games.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old captured bronze in the women’s 3,000-metre speed skating event in a time of 3:56.93, to win Canada’s first medal of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan.<\/p>\n

This is Maltais’ second career Olympic medal in her fifth Games. She previously won gold in 2022 in the team pursuit competition as part of Team Canada. She made her Olympic debut at the 2010 Vancouver Games, competing in short-track speed skating. After the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, she switched over to long track.<\/p>\n

Italy’s Francesca Lollobrigida won gold in an Olympic record time of 3:54.28 in front of a raucous home crowd. Ragne Wiklund of Norway won silver, edging out Maltais in a time of 3:56.54.<\/p>\n

Ottawa, Ont., native Isabelle Weidemann, who won gold alongside Maltais in the team pursuit competition in Beijing four years ago, finished fifth with a time of 3:59.24.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s women\u2019s hockey team will make their Olympic debut vs. Switzerland\"Feb<\/p>\n

Team Canada returns with another powerhouse squad for the 2026 Games. (Credit: Nick Wosika-USA TODAY Sports)<\/p>\n

(USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect \/ Reuters)<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s women\u2019s hockey team are set to begin their Olympic gold-medal defence Saturday with a match against Switzerland at 3:10 p.m. EST\/12:10 p.m. PST.<\/p>\n

There was fear that they’ll miss their second straight game as Switzerland was isolating in Milan on Friday after one player was diagnosed with norovirus. It’s the same stomach illness that ran through Finland\u2019s team that forced a postponement between them and Canada on Feb. 5.<\/p>\n

A Swiss medical official<\/a> said that there would be no issues with Switzerland playing the game, however, clearing the way for Team Canada to finally take the ice.<\/p>\n

Canada’s postponed match with Finland is scheduled for Feb. 12.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s mixed doubles curling team\u2019s Olympic tournament already on the line\"Milano<\/p>\n

Brett Gallant of Canada in action with Jocelyn Peterman of Canada against Bruce Mouat of Britain and Jennifer Dodds of Britain REUTERS\/Issei Kato<\/p>\n

(REUTERS \/ Reuters)<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s mixed doubles curling team of Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant are already in trouble, despite Saturday being the first official day of Olympic competition.<\/p>\n

The Canadian pair fell to Great Britain 7-5, dropping their record to 3-2, while the British duo of Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat improved to a tournament-leading record of 6-0.<\/p>\n

The Olympic mixed curling event started a couple days before the official start of the Games.<\/p>\n

Peterman and Gallant will have their work cut out for them to ensure a playoff berth. Of the 10 teams competing, just the top four reach the playoff after a nine-game round robin. They\u2019re currently clinging to fourth place.<\/p>\n

The Canadians will next face Estonia\u2019s Marie Kaldvee and Harri Lill at 1:05 p.m. EST\/10:05 a.m. PST on Saturday.<\/p>\n

More Team Canada news on Day 1<\/p>\n

In the women\u2019s slopestyle event, Canadians Megan Oldham and Naomi Urness qualified for the final, finishing with the seventh and eighth-best scores, respectively. The final will take place on Day 3, Monday, Feb. 3 at 6:30 a.m. EST\/3:30 p.m. PST. Fellow Canadians Sky Clarke and Elena Gaskell were unable to qualify for the final.<\/p>\n

Switzerland’s Franjo von Allmen won the first gold medal of the 2026 Winter Olympics, winning the men’s downhill in a time of 1:51.61. A pair of Italians, Giovanni Franzoni and Dominik Paris, rounded out the podium. Four Canadians, James Crawford, Cameron Alexander, Jeffrey Read and Brodie Seger, competed in the event, finishing ninth, 14th, 25th and 28th, respectively. A total of 36 skiiers competed in the event.<\/p>\n

Four Canadians participated in the women’s 20 KM skiathlon cross-country skiing event. Alison Mackie, who finished 22nd, Jasmine Drolet (38th), Katherine Stewart-Jones (45th) and Amelia Wells (50th). A couple of Swedes, Frida Karlsson and Ebba Andersson, took home gold and silver, while Norway’s Heidi Weng won bronze.<\/p>\n

Evan McEachran, the lone Canadian in the men’s slopestyle freestyle skiing event, failed to qualify for the final, recording a score of 57.85. Norwegians Birk Ruud and Tormod Frostad led the competition after qualifying with scores of 81.75 and 79.96.<\/p>\n

Three-time Olympian and two-time Olympic medallist Meryeta O\u2019Dine was unfortunately forced to withdraw from Olympic competition due to injury. The snowboard-cross athlete fell during a training session, fracturing her ankle. The 28-year-old is a native of Prince George, B.C. She won a pair of bronze medals in women\u2019s snowboard cross and the mixed team snowboard cross events at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. \u201cI\u2019m heartbroken,\u201d O\u2019Dine said in a statement. \u201cBut I am proud of the work I put in this year to get here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics – Speed Skating – Women’s 3000m – Milano Speed Skating Stadium, Milan, Italy –…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[161684,49,48,188152,188151,142248,188150,82,834,13543,170316,134306],"class_list":["post-460189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-2026-olympics","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-maltais","tag-medal-event","tag-olympic-medal","tag-speed-skating","tag-sports","tag-switzerland","tag-team-canada","tag-team-event","tag-valerie-maltais"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}