More silver for Canada as Grondin, Kingsbury finish second in snowboard cross, moguls

“… We came here for gold, but at the same time, I rode as good as I could today. I had fun, silver it is and I can be happy with my week.”

In men’s moguls earlier in the day, freestyle skiing star Mikael Kingsbury missed out on gold in the narrowest of fashions — with a tiebreaker — while claiming silver.

Kingsbury, 33, from Deux-Montagnes, Que., matched the exact score of Australia’s Cooper Woods of 83.71 in the final run but lost out due to the Australian scoring higher marks for turns.

“I feel amazing. I’m very happy with my skiing. It was close, a tiebreak — unfortunately, I’m the guy not on the good side of it. But I’ve worked very hard for this medal,” Kingsbury said.

It’s Kingsbury’s fourth medal after gold in Pyeongchang 2018, as well as silver medals at both Beijing 2022 and Sochi 2014.

On the short-track oval in Milan, Courtney Sarault captured bronze in the women’s 500 metres, crossing in 42.427 seconds.

The 25-year-old from Moncton edged the Netherlands’ Selma Poutsma at the line to secure her second medal of the Games after earlier claiming silver in the mixed team relay.

“It feels surreal. Honestly, the 500-metre wasn’t always my strongest distance and I worked really, really hard this summer, and my coach trusted me when I said I wanted to be a girl of all distances and not be categorized in the longer distances,” said Sarault.

“The fact that in 2023 I was questioning if I was done with this sport, and now I’m on the podium, it’s just crazy.”

Xandra Velzeboer of the Netherlands won gold in 41.609, with Italy’s Arianna Fontana taking silver.

In the men’s 1,000 metres, Montreal’s William Dandjinou finished fourth after leading into the final lap before being passed on the inside by the Netherlands’ Jens van ’t Wout. China’s Sun Long and South Korea’s Rim Jongun also slipped through down the stretch.

“Pretty disappointing with the result, but I know I did a good race. My game plan was set, I executed it pretty well until the last lap,” Dandjinou said.

“Overall, I can’t beat myself too hard about it because I did my best, and today it didn’t work. But, when it doesn’t work, and you are still fourth at the Olympics, it’s pretty good.”

In Tesero, Edmonton’s Alison Mackie finished eighth in the women’s 10-kilometre interval start, 1:17.9 behind Sweden’s Frida Karlsson, who led a Swedish one-two ahead of Ebba Andersson, with American Jessie Diggins taking bronze.

In men’s hockey, Macklin Celebrini opened the scoring and Jordan Binnington made 26 saves for the shutout as the star-studded Canadian team opened its quest for gold with a 5-0 victory over Czechia.

Mark Stone, Bo Horvat, Nathan MacKinnon and Nick Suzuki scored Canada’s other goals, while Connor McDavid chipped in with three assists.

“I thought the team overall was great. We had contributions all over the lineup and it was a good win,” McDavid said after the match.

“I thought as the game went, we got our legs going. We were able to sustain a bit of offensive pressure on them and kind of tilt the rink on them.”

MacKinnon added he thought the game had “a tough first period.”

“The Olympics are huge, and I was nervous. I can usually sleep before a game and I could not sleep,” he said. “We are good at what we do, but we feel like kids at this tournament.”

The Canadians meet the Swiss on Friday.

Elsewhere, Canada’s women’s hockey team, still without captain Marie-Philip Poulin due to injury, rebounded quite nicely with a 5-0 win over Finland.

Emily Clark, with two goals, Jennifer Gardiner, Daryl Watts and Kristin O’Neill scored in the win after Canada suffered a rough 5-0 loss to the United States on Tuesday.

“I think our team had a message to send. We hold ourselves to very high standards, so just continuing to work on our details, elevate our game, be the best that we can be and show the world what we have,” said Gardiner.

The Canadians will next face Germany in the quarterfinals Saturday.

On the long-track oval, Canadian speedskater Isabelle Weidemann missed the podium in the women’s 5,000 metres, finishing fifth, 3.91 seconds behind gold medallist Francesca Lollobrigida of Italy.

Lollobrigida edged Merel Conijn of the Netherlands for gold, while Norway’s Ragne Wiklund took bronze.

Weidemann won silver in the event four years ago in Beijing.

In the women’s snowboard halfpipe, Elizabeth Hosking from Longueuil, Que., was 11th in the competition won by South Korea’s Gaon Choi.

High-profile American snowboarder Chloe Kim finished second and won the silver medal.

Canada ended Day 6 with a total of seven medals (three silver four bronze).

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 12, 2026.

The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

More silver for Canada as Grondin, Kingsbury finish second in snowboard cross, moguls

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