What to know for this week's speed skating World Cup in Calgary
The old Olympic Oval could be on its last legs
This is an excerpt from The Buzzer, which is CBC Sports' daily email newsletter. Stay up to speed on what's happening in sports by subscribing here.
With the 2026 Winter Olympics just a little over a year away, Canada's long track speed skaters look poised for another successful Games.
In 2022, they won five medals in Beijing, trailing only the powerhouse Netherlands (12). And at last year's single-distances world championships in Calgary, Canadians racked up a national-record 10 medals — more than anyone else but the Dutch (13).
This week, the planet's top skaters are back at Calgary's aging Olympic Oval for a three-day World Cup meet starting Friday. It's the third of six stops on the tour and the first in almost two months.
WATCH | Calgary's aging Olympic Oval in need of repairs:
Canadians reached the podium six times across the first two meets, held in Japan and China. Five-time world champion and 2022 Olympic women's team pursuit gold medallist Ivanie Blondin led the way with a medal of each colour at the season opener, winning gold in the women's 3,000m, silver in the team pursuit with her Olympic partners Isabelle Weidemann and Valérie Maltais, and bronze with Yankun Zhao in the mixed relay. Three-time world champ and 2022 Olympic silver medallist Laurent Dubreuil added a silver in the men's 500m at the opener.
Weidemann, a triple medallist at the Beijing Olympics, picked up a 3,000m bronze at the second World Cup stop. And Maltais was upgraded to silver in the mass start after Blondin got disqualified for illegal contact in her best event (she was the Olympic silver medallist in 2022).
Expect a good showing from the Canadians this week in Calgary, where 28 skaters have been picked to represent the host country across the 10 individual distances and one team event for each gender. That includes 10 Olympians and five Olympic medal winners — Blondin, Weidemann, Maltais, Dubreuil and 38-year-old long-distance veteran Ted-Jan Bloemen. He won gold and silver at the 2018 Olympics in South Korea and took silver in the 10,000m at last year's worlds in Calgary.
The lone non-individual events this week are the men's and women's team sprints. Canada won both of them at last year's worlds for its only golds among its 10 total medals. Blondin and Dubreuil had a hand in those victories.
The international skater to watch is Jordan Stolz, the 20-year-old American star who's poised to be one of the biggest stars of next year's Winter Games after making his Olympic debut as a 17-year-old in 2022.
WATCH | Weidemann keeping an eye on 2026 Winter Games in Italy:
In 2023, Stolz became the youngest single distance world champion in history. Last year in Calgary he swept his three solo events (500m, 1,000m, 1,500m) for the second straight year before going on to capture his first all-round world title in Germany.
Stolz is also dominating the World Cup tour, winning four gold medals at each of the last four stops dating back to last season.
While there's plenty to get excited about this week in Calgary, there's also a lot of concern over the health of the Olympic Oval. Built for the 1988 Winter Olympics, the venue was expected to last for 25 years but is now about to celebrate its 38th birthday after hosting countless World Cups and more than a dozen world championships. The pipes underneath the floor are leaking, and Oval director Mark Messer says it's only "a matter of time before we have a catastrophic failure and can't [make] ice" anymore.
Canada's Olympic speed skaters train at the Oval, so this is obviously not great with the Milan-Cortina Games just a year away. Messer and his team are asking for $60 million in government funding for a renovation, but their lobbying efforts haven't really moved the needle, and athletes are worried about losing the Oval so close to the Olympics. "It's hanging on by a thread right now," Blondin said. "To lose the ice in here would be devastating for everyone." Here's more on the Oval's plight.
How to watch:
You can see every race at the Calgary World Cup meet live on CBCSports.ca, and CBC Gem, starting Friday at 7 p.m. ET and continuing Saturday and Sunday afternoon. The CBC TV network will also be showing races on Sunday from 2-3 p.m. in your local timezone. Here's the full streaming and broadcast schedule.
