The Winter Olympics have historically been where Canada has won the most gold medals. In 2010 it set the record for most gold medals won in a single Winter Olympics (14), though this has since been surpassed by Norway in the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Can we set another record in 2026? Here are the seven sports where Canada is most likely to win gold medals in the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, based on recent performance.
Hockey
What is it: One of the most popular Winter Olympics sports and one of the few team vs. team events across 16 sports. It’s also the sport in which Canada consistently dominates the podium.
Men’s hockey
Medal predictions: Gold or silver.
Why: The final roster for Team Canada features two of the world’s arguably best players, Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon. Olympics and Stanley Cup gold champion Sidney Crosby, who captained the winning team for the 4 Nations Face-Off in February 2025, will be bearing the “C” again on his jersey in Milan.
The combination of some of the best young talents in the NHL with the experience of Olympians like Crosby and Drew Doughty is certain to be a winning one.
The competition: Team Canada faces some strong opposing talent on Team USA in star players like Auston Matthews and Matthew and Brady Tkachuk.
The close odds reflect the fiercely tight competition between the two nations, with most hockey sportsbooks offering odds of +130 to +150 for Team Canada and +175 to +200 for Team USA. The US won the World Cup in 2025 and kept the Canadian team fighting in overtime during the 4 Nations Face-Off championship final last year.
Good to know: NHL players will be competing in the Olympics for the first time since the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. The return of the best-on-best makes this one of the most eagerly anticipated sports of Miano-Cortina 2026.
Women’s hockey
Medal predictions: Gold or silver.
Why: Pretty much everyone expects Team Canada to be on the ice for the gold medal finale — they’ve won a medal in every Olympics since women’s hockey was introduced at Nagano in 1998. Marie-Philip Poulin “Captain Clutch”, the only player to score goals in four Olympic games, will be set to return for her fifth in Milano Cortina, and hopefully also bring that gold medal energy to lead the team to victory again.
The competition: The US looks to be a serious challenger once again. Canada lost to the US in the 2025 World Championship and lost every game of four matches during the Rivalry Series in December 2025.
When the final women’s team roster is announced on 9 January, I’m hoping for a shakeup that will bring on some younger blood like 19-year old prodigy Chloe Primerano and U18 Women’s World Hockey record-breaker Caitlin Kraemer to balance out experience with speed. It might be just what Team Canada needs to hold on to its title as reigning Olympic hockey champions.
Good to know: The Canadian women’s team have won gold in five out of seven Olympic games where women’s hockey has been played.
Freestyle skiing
Moguls
What is it: Moguls refer to the large, rounded bumps along the slope that competitors have to ski down. Skiers are judged on speed and the form and difficulty of two mandatory aerial jumps and turns.
Medal predictions: Gold in men’s moguls.
Why: Mikaël Kingsbury is widely regarded as the world’s best male Moguls skier, with a jaw-dropping 99 World Cup wins and having won both moguls and dual moguls at the world championships in 2019, 2021, and 2023. Dual moguls is a new sport in the Olympics this year, which means double the opportunity for Kingsbury to win gold.
The competition: Japan’s Ikuma Horishima recently beat Kingsbury at the 2025 World Championship with a score of 89.03 over Kingsbury’s 82.86, making him a serious contender for gold. Walter Wallberg (Sweden) is also a threat as the reigning Olympic moguls champion, having come out on top in Beijing 2022, depriving Kingsbury of a gold finish.
Good to know: Canada has the record for most gold medals (12) in Olympic freestyle skiing.
Ski cross
What is it: A competition of elimination where skiers race through a challenging course with natural and artificial obstacles like big air jumps and high-banked turns. Ski cross has its roots in motocross and BMX. Despite being a timed race, it falls under the freestyle skiing discipline. The sport is relatively new to the Winter Olympics, having been added in 2010.
Medal predictions: Gold or silver in women’s and and gold in men’s ski cross
Why: Ski cross Olympian Marielle Thompson won gold at Sochi 2014 and silver at Beijing 2022, placing her in good stead for another podium finish in Milano Cortina 2026. She’s also a four-time World Cup champion.
On the men’s side, Reece Howden won his third ski cross World Cup in a row in December 2025, making him the all-time record holder for most ski cross World Cup wins.
The competition: Thompson faces stiff competition from Sandra Naeslund (Sweden), who holds the record for most World Cup wins. Fanny Smith (Switzerland) is another rival who has been competing against Thompson for over a decade, most recently winning the 2025 World Championship.
As for Howden, his main competitor is Alex Fiva (Switzerland), who finished a very close 0.54 seconds behind him to win silver in the 2025 World Cup ski cross final race.
Good to know:
- The World Cup: an annual series of skiing, snowboarding, and speed skating races where one overall Crystal Globe winner is crowned by accumulating the most points during the season.
- The World Championships: a biennial event where competitors must win a single race in their discipline to become World Champion.
- Both are important predictors of Olympic success, being seen as the second in prestige only to the Olympics.
Curling
What is it: Four-person teams slide 20 kg granite stones down an ice sheet to reach a circular target called a “House”. The game is won by the team that gets the most points, awarded for getting stones closest to the centre of the House. Curling is also played in mixed doubles at the Olympics.
Medal predictions: Gold in women’s, silver in men’s.
Why: Rachel Homan is the anticipated favourite to lead the women’s team to gold in the 2026 Winter Olympics. Her team swept the Canadian Olympic curling trials in November 2025 and Homan is a three-time World Championship winner, most recently for 2024 and 2025, so she’ll be going to Milan-Cortina in top form.
Brad Jacobs is a 2014 Olympics gold medallist and consistently ranked in the top 3 globally. Curlrank.com ranks Jacobs second based on statistical ratings across his game history and predicts that he will bring home silver from the 2026 Olympics.
The competition: Silvana Tirinzoni (Switzerland) is the biggest challenger to Homan, having gone head to head with the Canadian champion in the 20th Grand Slam of Curling. Tirinzoni was also the defending World Champion for four years in a row before being unseated by Homan in 2024.
Jacobs will have to bring his best game to defeat Bruce Mouat (Scotland), who is currently seen as the best in the world. His controlled style of play defeated the risk-taking Jacobs in the 2025 World Championships semi-final.
Good to know: Canada is expected to win medals in all three curling categories (women’s, men’s, mixed doubles).
Short-track speed skating
What is it: Skaters race against each other, with the fastest ones advancing to the next round. Due to the short track length (111.12 m) and tight curves, skaters have to lean down and grip the ice to make the turns. Short-track speed skating is one of the fastest Olympic sports, with skaters reaching 45+ km/h.
Medal predictions: Gold or silver in men’s individual or relay races
Why: The 24-year old William Dandjinou has been establishing himself as a short-track powerhouse on the world stage. Most recent wins include gold in the 1500m at the 2025 World Championships and his second-straight Crystal Globe as overall winner in the 2025 ISU Short Track World Tour.
Courtney Sarault’s recent performance also bodes well for her medal potential. Alongside Dandjinou, she took the 2025 Crystal Globe home as best overall female skater as well as nine individual race medals throughout the tour.
The competition: Dandjinou will have to outrace strong skaters like Jordan Stolz (US), a multi-titled medallist, and former Olympic champion Hwang Dae-heon (South Korea).
Sarault will have to hold her own against Arianna Fontana (Italy), the most decorated Olympic short track skater with 11 medals. Fontana will be looking to finish off her historic sixth Olympic run in her home country with a podium standing. Americans Kristen Santos-Griswold and Corinne Stoddard are strong medal threats as well, being ranked in the top 3 in the 2025 season.
Good to know: Canada has 37 medals in short-track speed skating, making it Canada’s second-best performing Winter Olympics sport (the first is long-track speed skating with 42 medals).
Snowboard cross
What is it: Like in ski cross, competitors are successively eliminated in qualifying races down tracks with jumps, moguls and turns. Snowboard cross is often called motocross on snow, where speed, technical skill, and aggressive tactics determine the winner.
Medal predictions: Gold in men’s.
Why: Eliot Grondin is poised to win his first Olympic gold, having picked up a silver and bronze in the Beijing 2022 Olympics. He’s already struck double gold in 2025: first in the World Championships in March 2025 followed by a second consecutive overall World Cup gold.
The competition: Grondin’s biggest gold medal threats come from Austria. Jakob Dusek and Alessandro Haemmerle were close contenders in the 2025 World Championship, ending in third and fourth place. Haemmerle narrowly edged out Grondin for gold in Beijing 2022, and both him and Dusek are three-time World Cup race winners.
Good to know: Canada has won 17 Olympic snowboarding medals since the sport was introduced in 1998, making it the nation with the second-highest all-time medal count in snowboarding.
