Team Canada won their first two medals at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games on Saturday in Switzerland. Caitlin Nash and Natalie Corless of Whistler, British Columbia won the silver medal in women’s doubles luge in St. Moritz and Florence Brunelle of Trois-Rivieres, Quebec won bronze in the women’s 1000 metre short track speed skating competition in Lausanne. It should be noted however that women’s doubles luge is not on the Olympic program.
In the women’s doubles luge, Nash and Corless had a second place time of 1:52.709. Jessica Degenhardt and Vanessa Schneider of Germany won the gold medal with a time of 1:51.443. Viktorija Ziedina and Selina Zvilna of Latvia won the bronze medal with a time of 1:53.043. Nash and Corless won a medal by 0.531 seconds over Maya Chan and Reannyn Weiler of the United States, who finished in fourth place with a time of 1:53.24.
In the women’s 1000 metre short track speed skating, Brunelle had a third place time of 1:30.024. Whi Min Seo of South Korea won the gold medal with a time of 1:29.439. Chanseo Kim of South Korea won the silver medal with a time of 1:29.538. Brunelle reached the podium by .091 seconds over Iuliia Beresneva of Russia, who had a fourth place time of 1:30.115.
In the team competitions, Canada lost in the quarterfinals to Japan by a score of 5-4 in mixed curling on Wednesday. Meanwhile in men’s hockey, Canada lost 6-2 to Russia on Saturday.
Team Canada is currently in 16th place in the medal standings with one silver and one bronze medal for two medals overall. Russia leads with 20 medals (five gold medals, nine silver medals and six bronze medals).
