A Canadian biathlete brought knitting needles to the Olympics. Thousands followed.

Canada's Adam Runnalls skis during the men's World Cup biathlon 12.5 km pursuit event in Canmore, Alta., Saturday, March 16, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

MILAN — Canadian biathlete Adam Runnalls’ Instagram account has exploded with knitters.

Since the 27-year-old Calgarian began posting a few days before the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics about his quest to finish knitting a sweater by the closing ceremonies, knitters have joined him on his Olympic journey.

“I started five or six days ago at like 1,600 followers, and now I have 10,000,” Runnalls said Friday. “I will go to bed and wake up the next day and have a thousand more followers than I did when I went to bed.

“It’s going to be a grey sweater with green stripes.”

Among the Insta posts, Florida Cat Mom admonished Runnalls for letting his ball of yarn run amok and told him to get a yarn bowl. Another poster advised him on his knitting technique.

“There’s not that much of a crossover between the huge knitting community on Instagram and the sport community,” Runnalls said. “I’ve kind of just hit that thing.”

The two-time Olympian’s first race is Sunday’s mixed relay at the Antholz-Anterselva Biathlon Arena north of Cortina.

Runnalls will race in up to six events. Knitting will be his mental and physical escape.

“It’s also something that pulls you away from the pressures of competing at the Olympics,” he said. “I’m not just thinking about racing all the time, all day, every day.

“It’s nice to be able to do something quietly, like listen to music and do something that keeps me a bit more busy and not necessarily getting bored, but also giving myself that time to relax and recharge.”

Runnalls helped the men’s biathlon relay team finish sixth in Beijing in 2022, which was Canada’s best Olympic result in that event.

Canada coach Helene Jorgensen wanted to start a knitting club with biathletes at a November training camp.

“I was like, ‘Ah, I don’t need to learn how to knit. I have my guitar,’” Runnalls said. “Then I found out that our coach actually had bought yarn and needles for all of us. So I was like, ‘OK, well, I guess I have to try it because she spent money on me.’”

Runnalls’ first project was a sauna hat. He was ill for a couple of days at that camp, so he put his needles to work.

“Because I was sick, I was like, ‘I’m just gonna knit,’” he recalled. “I was almost addicted to it, where it’s like that learning phase. You start seeing progress, and you’re like ‘oh, this is cool.’”

His wife, Lucy, also knits and helped him with that first sauna hat. The couple were married last September at the Canmore Nordic Centre in Alberta, where Runnalls trains.

Retired British diver and Olympic gold medallist Tom Daley hosts the TV show “Game of Wool; Britain’s Best Knitter” in that country.

The knitting community connected him with Runnalls through social media. Daley has suggested, via a message, that they get together and knit in Milan.

“I don’t think it’s going to happen because I’m five and a half hours away by car,” Runnalls said.

The Olympic Games provide an opportunity for athletes to promote themselves on social media.

Runnalls acknowledged his knitting posts have helped raise his profile in a sport that doesn’t get a lot of attention in North America.

“It’s like you almost have to find the right thing for you that draws people in,” he stated. “It’s hard to get traction as just an athlete because everyone’s an athlete who is here at the Games. What makes you different than other people?”

As for completing the sweater by his self-imposed deadline, “the only thing that will stop me is probably trying to make content around it,” he said.

“That would be the one thing that slows me down, or I run out of yarn.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 6, 2026.

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press