Canadian Olympic athletes return from Milano-Cortina to Montreal Airport

Returning athletes from the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics received a hero's welcome from friends and family at the Montreal Trudeau Airport on Feb. 23, 2026.

Canadian athletes fresh from competing at the Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina arrived home at the Montreal Trudeau International Airport on Monday.

Canada ended the Games with 21 medals, including five gold, one from freestyle skier Mikaël Kingsbury in dual moguls victory.

“Obviously, to win that first in history in mogul skiing, the first gold medal, and the first for Canada, to be the flag-bearer, it was huge,” he said.

Speed skater William Dandjinou hugged his cousins, fellow skater Courtney Sarault was swarmed by her family, and ice dancer Marjorie Lajoie hugged her mother, Julie Carignan.

“They’ve been so supportive through this whole experience and rooting for me, waking up early or whenever the times were,” said Sarault, who won four short track medals. “So just to share this experience with them, it’s something I’ll never forget.”

Speed skater Valérie Maltais returned with her two bronze and one gold medals around her neck.

She spoke about being the flag bearer for Team Canada in the closing ceremonies.

“It was an amazing experience, and I really wanted to enjoy that moment and, a little bit, forget all the cameras, all the interviews that I’ve done and what it means,” she said. “I really went inside of me and what is this journey that I just went through.”

The 35-year-old won Canada’s first medal, a bronze in the 3,000 metres, and followed it up with a gold in the women’s team pursuit and another bronze in the women’s 1,500 metres.

Fellow multi-medalist and male flag bearer Kingsbury spoke about being the first Canadian to win gold in the moguls.

“It was everything I dreamt of,” he said. “I couldn’t have scripted it better if I wrote it down!”

He added that to have his family in Italy and his son at the bottom of the course was the highlight.

It was after 11:30 p.m. when members of the silver-medal winning women’s hockey team came through the gate after landing in Montreal, after a tough Olympic tournament that saw both the men’s and women’s squads lose the gold-medal matches to the United States in overtime.

Captain Marie-Philip Poulin said the team was coming home with their heads held high.

“I don’t think we can be disappointed about the way the men’s and women’s teams played their matches,” said Poulin, who played most of the tournament on a sore knee after an injury in the second game.

When asked how she felt physically and mentally, she kept her answer brief.

“I think the Olympics is at the highest level of every athlete, that’s what you dream of,” she said. “There are ups and downs to it all.”

With files from The Canadian Press.