{"id":494308,"date":"2026-02-23T15:16:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T15:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/494308\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T15:16:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T15:16:18","slug":"maltais-and-dubois-to-carry-canadas-flag-at-milano-cortina-2026-closing-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/494308\/","title":{"rendered":"Maltais and Dubois to carry Canada’s flag at Milano Cortina 2026 Closing Ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFebruary 21, 2026\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Sharing<\/p>\n

Two skaters who are leaving Milano Cortina 2026<\/a> with multiple medals will serve as Team Canada\u2019s Closing Ceremony flag bearers.<\/p>\n

Long track speed skater Val\u00e9rie Maltais<\/a>, who won a gold and two bronze medals, and short track speed skater Steven Dubois<\/a>, who won a gold and a silver, will have the honour of carrying the maple leaf into the historic Verona Arena on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Maltais, along with Ivanie Blondin<\/a> and\u00a0Isabelle Weidemann<\/a>, successfully defended their Olympic title in the women\u2019s team pursuit after capturing gold together at Beijing 2022<\/a>. A five-time Olympian, Maltais also won her first individual Olympic medals, taking bronze in the 3000m and 1500m events.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old received the news that she would be one of Canada\u2019s flag bearers not long after competing in the women\u2019s mass start final\u2014an event that saw her finish an impressive fifth after an early fall put her at the back of the pack. That\u2019s what the Olympic Games are all about, said Maltais.<\/p>\n

READ: Val\u00e9rie Maltais adds another Olympic medal to her resum\u00e9<\/a><\/p>\n

\"ValerieTeam Canada long track speed skater Valerie Maltais celebrates winning a bronze medal in Women\u2019s 3000m Speed Skating at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Italy on Saturday, February 07, 2026. Photo by Leah Hennel\/COC<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just about the medals, it\u2019s about never giving up and giving your best. I think today, I proved that other side of what it is to be an Olympian and I\u2019m really proud of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was the fifth Olympic Games for Maltais, who competed at Vancouver 2010<\/a>, Sochi 2014<\/a> and PyeongChang 2018<\/a> in short track, helping Canada win a silver in the women\u2019s 3000m relay in Sochi. She made the switch to long track in the summer of 2018 and went on to compete in three events on the big oval at Beijing 2022. At Milano Cortina 2026, she improved her finishes in both the 3000m and mass start along with winning a second gold in the team pursuit. Her bronze in the 1500m was her first ever international medal at that distance. <\/p>\n

Dubois, meanwhile, captured gold in the men\u2019s 500m, improving from the bronze medal he won at Beijing 2022. He also helped Canada win silver in the mixed relay along with Kim Boutin<\/a>,\u00a0Courtney Sarault<\/a>,\u00a0William Dandjinou<\/a>, F\u00e9lix Roussel<\/a> and Florence Brunelle<\/a>. Dubois teamed up with Boutin, Sarault, and Dandjinou in the semifinals.<\/p>\n

READ: Steven Dubois crowned Olympic champion, women\u2019s short track relay wins bronze<\/a><\/p>\n

\"TeamTeam Canada\u2019s Steven Dubois celebrates winning gold in Short Track Speed Skating men\u2019s 500m at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan, Italy on Wednesday, February 18, 2026. Photo by Leah HennelCOC<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think I was going to get the honour right now, it\u2019s a surprise,\u201d Dubois said after receiving the flag bearer news from Jennifer Heil<\/a>, Team Canada\u2019s Chef de Mission. \u201cThank you so much for the opportunity. I\u2019m so happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was the second Olympic Games for the 28-year-old. In Beijing, along with the 500m bronze, Dubois also won gold in the men\u2019s 5000m relay and a bronze in the 1500m. He is now also a five-time Olympic medallist. <\/p>\n

Team Canada was led into the Opening Ceremony by moguls skier\u00a0Mika\u00ebl Kingsbury<\/a> and ski cross athlete\u00a0Marielle Thompson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Opening Ceremony at Milano Cortina 2026 was a unique event. Milano San Siro Olympic Stadium served as the primary venue for but because of the large footprint for these Games, which were spread across several regions of northern Italy, there were simultaneous athlete parades in Livigno\u2014where Kingsbury and Thompson marched\u2014as well as Predazzo and Cortina d\u2019Ampezzo.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, all athletes remaining in Italy will be transported to the Arena di Verona, a Roman amphitheatre dating back to 30 A.D. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"February 21, 2026 Two skaters who are leaving Milano Cortina 2026 with multiple medals will serve as Team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,198407,198408,100777,140273,198409,189876,194829,136184,189879,187818,169316,14471,82,100779,13543,134306,100780],"class_list":{"0":"post-494308","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-closing-ceremonies-flag-bearer","11":"tag-closing-ceremony","12":"tag-courtney-sarault","13":"tag-felix-roussel","14":"tag-flag-bearer","15":"tag-florence-brunelle","16":"tag-isabelle-wiedemann","17":"tag-ivanie-blondin","18":"tag-kim-boutin","19":"tag-marielle-thompson","20":"tag-mikael-kingbsury","21":"tag-milano-cortina-2026","22":"tag-sports","23":"tag-steven-dubois","24":"tag-team-canada","25":"tag-valerie-maltais","26":"tag-william-dandjinou"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494308","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=494308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}