2026 Olympic Games: Defending speed-skating champs skate for team-pursuit gold against the Netherlands

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The Netherlands just eked out a win against Japan in their semifinal race, pitting them against Canada in the final — set to take place at 9:43 a.m. ET.

The Netherlands team is composed of speed skaters Joy Beune, Bente Kerkhoff, Marijke Groenewoud and Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong.

Team Japan's fans are once again proving the speed-skating oval has rizz and giving the Canadian costumes a run for their money.

I would like to remind you that Milan Fashion Week is typically held in the same venue: the Fiera Milano Rho exhibition centre, which is hosting the first temporary Olympic speed skating oval. 

And I'm predicting the next cow-print craze. 🐄🤠

The Milano Speed Skating Stadium IS 👏🏻 WHERE 👏🏻 IT'S 👏🏻 AT.

As we've noted on this page before, the speed skating stadium at the Milano-Cortina Games never fails to disappoint and today is no exception. 

As Village People's YMCA played on the loudspeaker — not the first time here — a shot of the crowd panned to two Canadian fans dressed in sparkly RCMP outfits, complete with a bedazzled Tims cup.

Canada's team pursuit champs easily won their semifinal race against the U.S., finishing about five seconds ahead.

In the team pursuit, opposing teams start simultaneously on different sides of the 400-metre oval and do a total of six laps. The clock doesn't stop until all three skaters have crossed the finish line.

Racing begins with the semifinals at 8:52 a.m. ET. The matchups are Canada vs. The United States and the world champion Netherlands vs. World silver medallist Japan. The winners guarantee themselves a medal and will square off for the gold at 10:47 a.m. ET. The runners-up skate for the bronze at 10:41 a.m. ET.

Canadian Olympic women's speed skating team confident ahead of Tuesday's team pursuit races

Blondin, Maltais and Weidemann, who have been skating together for eight years, said they were feeling strong and focused after their quarterfinal win.

"We are a team of madames — the ladies' team," Maltais, who earned her first solo bronze in the 3,000-metre event, told our colleague Omar Dabaghi-Pacheco in Milan. "We're 35, 35 and 30 years old … we know how to do these things, we just need to lay it out there on the ice."

Kris Reyes here, from the Milano Speed Skating Stadium. Canada's women's speed skaters are aiming to defend their Olympic gold medal from Beijing 2022. 

Isabelle Weidemann, Ivanie Blondin and Valerie Maltais are skating in today's team pursuit. All are already Olympic medallists hoping to add more hardware to their collection. 

Semifinals and finals will be skated back-to-back, starting at 8:52 a.m. ET.

Team Canada finished first in their quarter finals race over the weekend. 

Spotted in the crowd to cheer them on? Newly minted bronze medallists in ice dancing Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier.

We have a new schedule for Olympics aerials. Women will now compete in both qualifiers and finals tomorrow — first in the morning, then in the afternoon. Men will do the same, but on Thursday. 

There's more heavy snow in the forecast for Thursday, though, so that could change.

Bean said the change will have a small impact on the athletes, who got themselves prepared this morning, but that it's also something they're used to. 

"Marion Thénault was out there doing fabulous jumps and all of a sudden this storm rolled in, so I'm disappointed for them and for the spectators," Bean said.

He noted that having qualifiers and finals in the same day will be tiring for the athletes, but that in training they often do extra jumps to prepare for this kind of schedule.

"The second that we know we're not competing, we really want to try to have them shut down, return to the village. There's some beautiful recovery areas," he said. 

Canadian figure skating pair ends Olympics on high note after rocky start

Canadian pairs figure skaters Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps made a valiant comeback in the free program to finish 11th after a devastating fall in the short programs on Sunday. They were also forced to withdraw from the earlier team event after Stellato-Dudek sustained in a training accident before the Olympics.

Stellato-Dudek's Olympic journey is one of the more unusual in the sport. She stepped away from competition at 18 and returned 16 years later, eventually moving to Montreal from the U.S. To pursue pairs with Deschamps.

Learning the discipline, she said, was like "putting together a very complicated puzzle," but she quickly grew to trust her partner.

"He's extremely strong, so I always felt very safe with him.… It was a chance that I took and one that I'm really happy that I did."

After a free skate that lifted Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps from their 14th spot after the short program to 11th overall yesterday, the pair say they're just thankful they can compete at this point. 

She credited Deschamps's strength, "mentally and physically," and the thousands of encouraging messages she's received for believing in herself, after a head injury from a fall before the Games called into question her participation in Milano-Cortina. 

Deschamps, the 2024 world champion, said Stellato-Dudek's resolve has brought the pair this far. 

"Everything she does, she just tries to push the limits. And this is who she is as a person, and this is also what is driving us every day in practice," he said. 

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