These southern Alberta athletes will represent Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics

Canada's Abigail Strate competes in the 1st round of the women's world cup ski jumping in Lillehammer, Norway, Saturday Nov. 22, 2025. (Geir Olsen/NTB Scanpix via AP)

Canada is sending 207 athletes to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, Italy and many of them have a connection to southern Alberta.

In total, there are 45 Albertans listed on the Team Canada website that were selected for the games, with 36 hailing from southern Alberta following Thursday’s announcement that Calgarian Brayden Point won’t play for the men’s hockey team due to injury.

The games’ opening ceremony will take place on Feb. 6.

Team Canada won 26 medals at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, including four gold, eight silver and 14 bronze.

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Here are some of the hometown athletes you should keep an eye on when the Olympics kick off in Italy.

Biathlon:

Pascal Paradis:

Calgarian Pascal Paradis, 23, is set to make her Olympic debut at Milano Cortina 2026. She was part of Team Canada at the Lausanne 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games. She started cross-country skiing at the age of 6 and biathalon at 9.

Adam Runnalis:

27-year-old Calgarian Adam Runnalls made his Olympic debut at Beijing 2022 where he was part of the men’s 4×7.5km relay team that finished sixth for Canada’s best ever Olympic result in the event.

Bobsleigh:

Taylor Austin

Lethbridge resident Taylor Austin made his Olympic debut at Beijing 2022 where he was the pilot of two-man and four-man sleds. He got to race in all four heats of the two-man event, finishing 20th overall with brakeman Daniel Sunderland.

Yohan Eskrick-Parkinson

Calgary-based Yohan Eskrick-Parkinson’s path to the Canadian national bobsleigh team started on a diving springboard but a few months after his first time in a sled, Eskrick-Parkinson was named a member of the national team, pushing the sled behind pilot and Beijing 2022 Olympian Taylor Austin.

Skylar Sieben

Sieben, a 25-year-old Cochrane resident, is entering her second year on the Canadian National Bobsleigh Team, quickly establishing herself as one of the country’s most promising brakemen. After transitioning to bobsleigh from track and field, Skylar has brought exceptional speed, power, and competitiveness to the ice.

Bianca Ribi

Calgarian Bianca Ribi, 30, first became interested in bobsleigh a few months after graduating from Dartmouth and returning home June of 2018. After years spent playing soccer, she wasn’t ready to finish her athletic career, but knew she was ready for a new sport. Her dad was the one who thought bobsleigh would be something she would enjoy, but also be successful in, as it combined her love for speed and strength. Working with bobsleigh great Lyndon Rush, Bianca was fortunate to be selected onto the National Bobsleigh Program in 2018.

Cross-country Skiing:

Tom Stephen

Calgary’s Stephen, 23, is set to make his Olympic debut at Milano Cortina 2026 after winning the men’s 10km classic at the Nordiq Canada 2026 Olympic Winter Games Trials. It was his first race of the season, having returned to skiing on snow just 10 days earlier after battling a back injury.

In December, Stephen described to CTV Calgary’s Glenn Campbell what it felt like to be named an Olympic team member.

“It’s crazy. It doesn’t even feel real still, but I’m super excited,” said the 23-year-old. It’s a sense of relief because I’ve put in so much hard work over the last couple of months. Even before that—the last years of my life—so it feels like it’s paid off.”

Xavier McKeever

Canmore’s McKeever, 22, is set to become a second-generation Olympian at Milano Cortina 2026, extending his family’s legacy in cross-country skiing. McKeever earned his spot on the Olympic team by winning the men’s sprint free event at the Nordiq Canada 2026 Olympic Winter Games Trials.

Curling:

Brett Gallant

Chestermere resident Gallant, 35, made his Olympic debut at Beijing 2022 where he won a bronze medal in the men’s event. He had also won four Brier titles as well as a gold and two silver medals at the World Men’s Curling Championships while playing second for Team Gushue. In 2025, Gallant won the Brier again, this time as the second for Team Jacobs, which went on to win bronze at the World Men’s Curling Championship. With partner Jocelyn Peterman, Gallant won silver at the 2019 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship.

Jocelyn Peterman

After winning the Canadian Trials in November 2021, Team Jones became Team Canada at Beijing 2022. In Chestermere resident Jocelyn Peterman’s Olympic debut, they finished with a 5-4 record and missed the playoffs by one spot.

Ben Hebert

Chestermere’s Hebert, 42, is a two-time Olympian and an Olympic gold medallist. He is also a two-time world champion and five-time Brier champion.

Tyler Tardi

Calgary’s Tardi, 27, competed at three straight World Junior Curling Championships in 2017, 2018, and 2019. He skipped the team to back-to-back gold medals in 2018 and 2019.

Ahead of the 2022-23 season, Tardi joined Team Kevin Koe as the third. He was invited to join Team Brad Jacobs as their alternate for the 2025 World Men’s Curling Championship, where they won the bronze medal.

Men’s hockey

Logan Thompson

Calgarian Thompson, 28,is set to make his Olympic debut at Milano Cortina 2026. His only previous international experience was at the 2022 IIHF World Championship. He started four games before suffering an injury, leaving him to watch as Canada took silver following an overtime loss to Finland in the final. Thompson won the Stanley Cup with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2023. He was traded to the Washington Capitals in 2024.

Josh Morrisey

Calgary’s Morrisey, 30, is set to make his Olympic debut at Milano Cortina 2026. Morrissey was a member of Canada’s championship-winning team at the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off. His first experience with the senior national team came at the 2017 IIHF World Championship where he helped Canada take home a silver medal. He plays for the Winnipeg Jets.

Cale Makar

Calgarian Makar, 27, is set to make his Olympic debut at Milano Cortina 2026. Makar helped Canada win the Four Nations Face-Off in 2025, the first time he played in a senior international tournament. Makar was part of the Colorado Avalanche’s Stanley Cup winning squad of 2022.

Long track speed skating

Anders Johnson

Calgary’s Johnson, 28, is set to make his Olympic debut at Milano Cortina 2026. He won gold in the team sprint, a non-Olympic event, at the 2024 ISU World Single Distances Championships, setting a world record (later broken in January 2025) alongside Laurent Dubreuil and Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu. He competed individually at the world championships for the first time in 2025.

Ted-Jan Bloemen

At PyeongChang, South Korea at the 2018 Winter Olympics, Calgarian Bloemen, 39, ended an 86-year Olympic medal drought for Canada in long track speed skating’s 5000 metre and 10,000 metre events for men. After winning silver in the former in a photo finish, he broke the Olympic record in the latter to capture the gold medal.

Brooklyn McDougall

Calgarian Brooklyn McDougall, 27, made her Olympic debut at Beijing 2022 where she placed 22nd overall in the 500m.

McDougall competed at her first ISU World Single Distances Championships in 2023 where she was a member of Canada’s gold medal winning trio, along with Ivanie Blondin and Carolina Hiller-Donnelly, in the team sprint, a non-Olympic event. She captured a second world championship medal in 2025, taking silver in the team sprint with Blondin and Béatrice Lamarche.

Skeleton

Josip Brusic

Okotoks’ Brusic, 23, is making his Olympic debut at Milano Cortina 2026. He came to the world of skeleton after starting his athletic journey in track and field. Specializing in the sprints, he developed the speed and explosiveness that would later benefit him on the ice track. After encouragement from a track and field coach, Brusic attended a skeleton scouting camp in Edmonton and soon began training at the Ice House in Calgary.

Ski jumping

Abigail Strate

Calgary’s Abigail Strate, 24, was part of a history-making moment in her Olympic debut at Beijing 2022. She and teammates Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes, Alexandria Loutitt, and Matthew Soukup won bronze in the inaugural Olympic mixed team ski jumping event. It was Canada’s first-ever Olympic medal in ski jumping.

Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes

Calgarian Boyd-Clowes, 34, played his part in a history-making moment at Beijing 2022. He and teammates Alexandria Loutitt, Matthew Soukup, and Abigail Strate won bronze in the inaugural Olympic mixed team ski jumping event. He also competed for Canada at Vancouver in 2010, Sochi in 2014 and in PyeongChang in 2018.

Natalie Eilers

Calgary’s Eilers, 27, is set to make her Olympic debut at Milano Cortina 2026 after returning from a potential career-ending injury. In January 2024, Eilers crashed, suffering a complete rupture of the ACL in her right knee, as well as two meniscus tears, a fractured femur, and a partial shoulder dislocation.

Nicole Maurer

Calgary’s Maurer, 26, is set to make her Olympic debut at Milano Cortina 2026. She posted her career-best individual result on the circuit in February 2025 when she finished 16^th in Hinzenbach. That was one of three top 20 performances she earned that month. She ended the 2024-25 season ranked 28^th in the World Cup standings, a career-high.

Snowboard

Amy Fraser

Calgarian Fraser, 30, made her Olympic debut at Beijing 2022 just six years after she began training in ski halfpipe. Fraser earned her first World Cup podium in December 2022, kicking off a breakthrough season in which she finished second in the halfpipe World Cup standings, placed a career-best fifth at the FIS World Championships, and competed at the Winter X Games for the first time.

Brendan Mackay

Calgary’s Mackay, 28, made his Olympic debut at Beijing 2022 where he qualified for the men’s ski halfpipe final and finished ninth overall. He completed the 2021-22 season as the Crystal Globe winner for men’s ski halfpipe. A year later, he won gold at the 2023 FIS World Championships after putting down some of the biggest tricks he has ever done.

Dylan Marineau

Calgary’s Marineau, 27, is set to make his Olympic debut at Milano Cortina 2026. He competed at the FIS World Championships in 2023 and 2025. He reached the men’s ski halfpipe final in 2025, finishing eighth.

Andrew Longino

Calgary’s Longino, 23, is set to make his Olympic debut at Milano Cortina 2026. He previously represented Team Canada at the Lausanne 2020 Youth Olympic Winter Games where he won gold in ski halfpipe and was selected as Team Canada’s Closing Ceremony flag bearer.

Brooke D’Hondt

Calgary’s Brooke D’Hondt, 20, made her Olympic debut at Beijing 2022. At 16 years old, she was Team Canada’s youngest athlete at the Games. She qualified for the women’s halfpipe final and finished 10th overall. A few weeks later, D’Hondt claimed the bronze medal at the 2022 FIS Junior World Championships.

Felicity Geremia

Calgarian Felicity Geremia, 18, is set to make her Olympic debut at Milano Cortina 2026 where she will be the youngest female athlete on Team Canada. Geremia represented Canada at the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games, where she advanced to the women’s snowboard halfpipe final and finished ninth overall.

Alpine skiing - Men

Jeffrey Read

Canmore resident Jeff, son of Crazy Canuck Ken Read, made his FIS World Cup debut in Wengen, Switzerland -- the same hill that his father won on in 1980. Jeff has been a part of the men’s Canadian Alpine Ski Team since 2016. The 28-year-old has 33 World Cup top-30 finishes to his name, including seven in the top 10 and will hope to challenge further in 2025-26.

Alpine Skiing - Women

Kara (Kiki) Alexander

Cochrane’s Alexander, 24, started skiing and ski racing as a bonding activity with her family when she was six years old, and she’s never looked back. Outside of her 12 World Cup starts, she has been a powerful presence at the Nor-Am level, where she has won six times in slalom, super-G and Alpine Combined.

Britt Richardson

Now entering her fifth year on the World Cup, the 2003-born athlete has 31 starts at the highest level. Richardson, from Canmore, made her debut in 2021-22, making three World Cup starts, before earning her first World Cup points with a 22nd-place giant slalom finish in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.

Luge

Kailey Allan– Women’s Doubles

It was a summer camp at Winsport’s Canada Olympic Park that introduced Calgarian Kailey Allan, 22, to the sport of luge when she was 10. She enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2019-20, qualifying to represent Canada at the Youth Olympic Games, When not on the playing field, she’s been a background actor on a variety of commercials and television shows.

Beattie Podulsky – Women’s Doubles

Podulsky, 20, made a giant leap forward in 2024-25 while joining forces with Kailey Allan on a women’s double sled – a discipline that will debut at the 2026 Olympic Winter Games.

Devin Wardrope – Men’s Doubles

When Calgary’s Wardrope, 23, was 11 years old in 2013, his life took a thrilling turn after his parents encouraged him to take a luge recruitment camp in Calgary. Wardrope’s most cherished sliding moment came in 2022-23 when he and Cole missed a podium finish by .020 seconds at the Whistler World Cup. The two were part of Canada’s bronze-medal winning relay team at the 2025 World Championships in Whistler.

Cole Zajanski– Men’s Doubles

When he was a boy, Zajanski’s mom had to drive through Canada Olympic Park to meet her friend when she came upon a sign to sign up for luge. Next thing he knew, Cole was in the gym and on a track flying down the ice-covered chutes around the world. Cole and luge partner Devin Wardrope are now Canada’s top sled and mixing it up with the world’s best in the sport.