Valerie Maltais of La Baie, Quebec has won Canada’s first medal at the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan/Cortina d’Ampezzo. On Saturday at the Milano Speed Skating Stadium, Maltais placed third in the women’s 3000 metre speed skating.
Maltais had a time of 3:56.93. Francesca Lollobrigida of Italy won the gold medal with a time of 3:54.28. Ragne Wiklund of Norway won the silver medal with a time of 3:56.54. Maltais reached the podium by 1.19 seconds over Joy Beune of the Netherlands. Beune had a fourth place time of 3:58.12.
I was correct with a Canadian winning a bronze medal in the women’s 5000 metre speed skating event. I was incorrect with the Canadian speed skater. I predicted Isabelle Weidemann of Ottawa, Ontario to reach the podium, but she finished fifth with a time of 3:59.24.
This was Maltais’s third Olympic medal. She now has one medal of each colour. Maltais previously won the Olympic gold medal in the women’s team pursuit at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing with Ivanie Blondin of Ottawa and Wiedemann, and the Olympic silver medal in the women’s 3000 metre short track speed skating relay with Marie-Eve Drolet of Chicoutimi, Quebec, Jessica Hewitt of Langley, British Columbia, and Marianne St-Gelais of Roberval, Quebec at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi.
