Canada wins gold medal in women’s team pursuit speedskating event

CITYnews halifax / By Lucas Casaletto

Canada has gone back-to-back at the speedskating track.

Isabelle Weidemann, Ivanie Blondin and Valerie Maltais won gold in the women’s team pursuit for the second Olympics in a row on Tuesday.

The Canadians beat the Netherlands in the gold-medal race, erasing an early deficit to take the lead with two laps left and crossing the line 0.96 seconds ahead of the Dutch.

It is the third gold medal in as many days for Canada after the country didn’t win one event in the first eight days of competition at Milano Cortina 2026. It is also the 12th medal overall for Canada (three gold, four silver, five bronze).

Earlier, Canada crushed the U.S. by 4.22 seconds in a semifinal.

The gold-medal race was part of a riveting couple of minutes for Canadian Olympic fans. As the race was going on, Rachel Homan made the winning shot against previously unbeaten Sweden in women’s curling for the Canadian rink’s third victory in a row.

Maltais won Canada’s first medal in Italy with a bronze in the 3,000 metres on Day 1.

Weidemann won three medals at the 2022 Olympics, while Blondin took two.

The Netherlands won gold in team pursuit at last year’s world single-distance championships, while Canada earned bronze.

Weidemann and Blondin are Ottawa natives, while Maltais is from La Baie, Que.