Steven Dubois was crowned Olympic champion, the women’s short track relay won bronze

It was a fruitful day for the Canadian short track speed skating team on Wednesday at the 2026 Milano Cortina.

Steven Dubois was crowned Olympic champion in the men’s 500 meters and just half an hour earlier, Courtney Sarault, Kim Boutin, Florence Brunelle and Danaé Blais took the bronze medal in the women’s 3000 meters relay.

With the Olympic title, the 28-year-old Dubois achieved one of the few remaining goals he had yet to achieve: becoming an Olympic champion in the individual event.

“It was the last individual medal I missed. I’ve done everything in my career,” Dubois said. “I didn’t want to make winning the Olympics a goal, but today I woke up and that’s what I wanted. I did everything I could to win that medal,” said Dubois, who admitted he had trouble sleeping over the past two days because of stress.

In the final, Dubois left nothing to chance, leading from the start before slowing down the race. This bold strategy paid off. The Canadian held pole position, limiting his rivals’ passing opportunities, and managed to fend them off for four and a half laps to finish ahead of Dutch skater Melle Van ‘t Wout and his brother Jens, who took silver and bronze respectively.

Canada’s other player in the 500 meters final, William Dandjinou, was disqualified. Competing in his first Olympics, Dandjinou reached the finals in all three individual distances in Milan but was unable to reach the podium.

For Dubois, a three-time medalist at Beijing 2022, the Olympic title comes after a difficult start to the season. After suffering a hip injury in the fall, he returned to training just weeks before the opening stop of the ISU World Tour in Montreal.

“I don’t want to arrive at the end of the season disappointed,” he said. “The season started off bad because of my injury. I don’t want to say that it stopped me from doing what I wanted to do. I had time to train, and I didn’t want any excuses. I really wanted to race to win.”

Although he won silver in the mixed 3000 meter relay early in the Olympics, Dubois failed to live up to expectations in his first two individual events. After falling in the 1000 meters qualifying round on February 10, he finished sixth in the 1500 meters four days later after falling again in a crowded nine-skater final.

“The fall in the 1000 meters really hurt me mentally,” said Dubois. “I came in as world champion, always on the World Cup podium, and I couldn’t even run one of my favorite distances because of bad luck. It’s hard to reset.”

Dubois is already familiar with the Olympic podium in the 500 metres, having won bronze in the event four years ago at Beijing 2022. Now a five-time Olympic medalist, he also took silver in the 1,500 meters and contributed to Canada’s gold medal in the men’s 5,000 meters relay at those Games.

After winning bronze in the women’s 3000 meter relay, Canada’s skaters experienced a variety of emotions.

“We all went into the final aiming for gold,” said Boutin, now a six-time Olympic medalist. “It took us a little time to process what happened, but then we hugged and reminded ourselves how hard we worked to get there. We’re happy to be on the podium.”

In the final, Canada took an early lead before the Dutch team crashed following knife contact just before the halfway point of the 27-lap race.

The Canadian was still ahead with just a few laps remaining when Blais lost his footing.

“I lost my footing for reasons I can’t explain,” Blais said. “It was a short track, often there was no explanation. After that, I told myself that I shouldn’t fall. I used everything I had left in my legs to get back on the track, tried to block the Italian skater, which didn’t work because I lost so much speed, and then tried to push Florence as hard as I could.”

Canada finally crossed the finish line behind South Korea, which won gold, and Italy, which won silver.

“We are a very strong team, and we are not going to hide the fact that we want gold, and I think we can win gold,” Blais said, echoing Boutin’s statement. “But we are also very grounded and focused on the process. We have worked for years for this moment. Once the emotions passed, we realized that we could celebrate. One race doesn’t define us, the last four years do.”

With her sixth Olympic medal, Boutin matched the medal totals of long track speed skater Cindy Klassen and former short track teammate Charles Hamelin. The three now share the title of most decorated Canadian athlete in Winter Olympic history.

“I came here with the goal of winning three medals,” said Boutin. “I’ve got two medals so far, and it’s not over yet. Winning these medals as a team is very satisfying.”

His teammates highlighted the mentoring role played by the most experienced skater on the squad.

“Kim is like a big sister,” Blais said. “He calmed me down in competitions and was very caring. He made me cry after many races this season. Even when he had races coming up, he was always there for me. He supported me through the most difficult times,” said Blais referring to a difficult time several months ago when his mother was seriously ill.

Sarault now has four medals at these Games. Only one Canadian woman has ever won more—Klassen, who took five medals at Turin 2006.

Sarault said he enjoyed each podium in a different way. “It’s not the medal that makes me happy, it’s the whole experience of winning the medal, but the whole race. It’s the journey that I went through to get this medal and the people that I got to experience this with. I think that’s what I hold on to more than just the medal. It’s like the journey to achieve what I achieved.”

Wednesday’s two medals brought Canada’s short track speed skating total to five at these Games. More could be added on Friday, when the last two Olympic finals in this discipline take place. Canada has qualified for the final of the men’s 5,000 meters relay, while the women’s 1,500 meters will close out the Olympic short track program.