With summer training and competition now a thing of the past for Team Canada athletes, it’s time to look ahead to the winter season, especially for Canadians who specialize in Nordic sports at the highest level.
Winning medals hasn’t always been easy for Canadians competing in ski jumping, cross-country skiing and biathlon. However, the potential to get there is definitely there ahead of the 2023-2024 season, as Canadian athletes achieved some of their best results in Nordic sports in 2022-2023 and even managed to surprise some of the world powers.
With World Cup season just around the corner, here are the athletes to keep an eye on in ski jumping, cross-country skiing and biathlon during the winter months.
Ski jumping
To monitor
At the end of the 2022 Games in Beijing, Canada had the status of a leading country in ski jumping – something that had not happened since the 1980s.
With the ski jumps at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary now out of use, Canada’s best ski jumpers have moved to Europe, where they train at some of the best ski jumping centers and reach new heights that allow them to compete with the best in the world.
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Alexandria Loutitt of Canada is pictured with her medal after winning the women’s large hill ski jumping at the Nordic World Ski Championships in Planica, Slovenia, Wednesday, March 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic) -
Alexandria Loutitt of Canada celebrates after her second-round jump in the women’s HS138 ski jumping event at the Nordic World Championships in Planica, Slovenia, Wednesday, March 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic). -
Alexandria Loutitt of Canada competes in the women’s HS138 ski jumping competition at the Nordic World Championships in Planica, Slovenia, on Wednesday, March 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic).
In the women’s category, Canada has two top athletes Alexandria Loutitt, 19, and Abigail Strate, 22. These two Albertans from Calgary were part of the Canadian team that won a historic team bronze medal at Beijing 2022 before really making a name for themselves on the international stage last season.
Louttit, who began ski jumping at the age of nine after watching the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver when she was six, became the first female ski jumping world champion in Canadian history in 2024, an achievement that capped a season in which she She won two World Cup medals – including the first ever win by a Canadian woman in ski jumping.
READ: A Story of Kindness: Alexandria Loutitt
She won the first World Cup gold medal of her career in Zao, Japan, before adding a silver medal to her haul in Lillehammer, Norway, in March. Louttit, a proud Indigenous athlete from the Gwich’in First Nation, also won gold on Canadian slopes when she won the world junior title in Whistler, British Columbia.
This summer she continued in the same vein, finishing third overall on the Grand Prix circuit thanks to four bronze medals she won against some of the top competitors she’ll be competing against this winter.
Strate, for her part, is also one of the best in her sport and achieved her first World Cup podium finish in an individual competition with third place in Hinterzarten, Germany, in January. She climbed into the top five three times in the Summer Grand Prix series and finished sixth overall.
They are joined by 23-year-old Nicole Maurer and 25-year-old experienced athlete Natalie Eilers, both of whom have been competing in World Cup events since 2017.
On the men’s side, Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes, who has competed in four Olympics, announced on Instagram that he was taking a break from competition after being Canada’s top men’s ski jumper.
Although Canada will not host a major competition in 2024-24, the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup season begins November 24 in Ruka, Finland and runs until mid-March.
Cross-country skiing
CompEdition below Canada
To monitor
Members of Canada’s group of young cross-country skiers appear ready to take the next step in their development in 2024-2024 after making good progress last season.
Both 25-year-olds Antoine Cyr and Graham Ritchie recorded an important result when they took fourth place in the freestyle team sprint at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, building on their fifth place achieved last year at the 2022 Winter Olympics had.
In the individual events, Cyr will be looking to reach the podium after achieving his career-best result, a fourth-place finish, in the 15km classic-style mass start on the A stage of the famous Tour in January in Val Di Femme, Italy has the skis.
At their side in the first stages of the World Cup are Olivier Léveillé, 22, and Xavier McKeever, 20. The quartet secured fifth place in the 4×10 km relay at the 2023 FIS World Championships, securing Canada’s best result there Event since 2009.
After reaching the podium at the 2021 World Junior Championships, Léveillé has had promising results since becoming a full-time World Cup team member, including his first top-10 finish in an individual World Cup event in March 2022.
McKeever will make his first season-opening Cup appearance at just a few World Cup stages towards the end of the last two seasons. However, he can benefit from strong support, particularly from his parents Robin McKeever and Milaine Thériault, who are both Olympians.
Canada’s top women’s competitor will be Olympic athlete Katherine Stewart-Jones. The 28-year-old achieved her first top 10 individual finish in the World Cup last season and she will look to use this as a springboard to even better results. During the first stages of the season she will be accompanied by Amelia Wells, a rookie in the World Cup.
Canada’s best cross-country skiers will have the opportunity to compete on Canadian soil when the World Cup stops in Canmore, Alberta, February 9-13. Before this stage there will be nine stages, starting on November 24th in Ruka, Finland. From December 30th to January 7th, skiers will also take part in the annual Tour de Ski, which includes three stages of the World Cup.
retirement
For the first time since 2015, Dahria Beatty will not be part of Canada’s squad for the opening stages of the World Cup. The two-Olympic competitor retired after her fourth appearance at the Senior World Championships in 2024. Over the course of her career she took part in 95 World Cup events.
biathlon
CompEdition below Canada
championNats of the world
- IBU World Championships – February 7-18, 2024 – Nove Mesto Na Morave, Czech Republic
To monitor
Under the leadership of Emma Lunder, Canadian biathletes have made great strides to re-establish themselves among the best in the world for the first time in a generation.
At the start of last season in Kontiolahti, Finland, Lunder finished fourth in the 7.5km sprint before finishing fifth in the 10km pursuit. Towards the end of the season, she recorded another personal best when she placed fifth in the 15 km event in Östersund, Sweden. Between these two moments, she placed seventh in the 12.5 km mass start at the IBU World Championships. It was the first time she broke through the top 10 group in a World Championships individual competition.
Before the first quarter of the World Cup season she will be supported by Nadia Moser. The 26-year-old was the only other Canadian to make it into the top 50 of the World Cup rankings last season. Together with Lunder, Adam Runnalls and Christian Gow, she finished eighth in the mixed 4×6 km relay at the 2023 World Championships.
Runnalls and Gow will make up Canada’s main team at the men’s World Cup. Only 25 years old, Runnalls achieved the best result of his career last season when he finished 13th in the 10km sprint in Antholz. It was the first time he reached the top 15 in an individual competition.
At 30 years old and with two Olympic Games appearances, Gow is the veteran. He has achieved top 10 results before, most recently at the start of the 2021-2022 season. He then finished 12th in the Beijing 2022 sprint.
As we approach what could be a prosperous season for Canadian biathletes, they eagerly await the hosting of the final leg of the World Cup on the calendar in Canmore, March 14-17. There will be eight World Cup stops beforehand, starting with the November 25th to December 3rd stage in Östersund. The IBU World Championships will also take place in February in Nove Mesto Na Morave, Czech Republic.
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