Hours after winning Olympic bronze, Gilles and Poirier surprise Canadian fans at pub

Local skaters and coaches react to Unionville’s Paul Poirier and Toronto’s Piper Gilles season's best score in free dance to earn a bronze medal in Italy.

MILAN — Canada’s ice dancing duo of Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier are basking in Olympic glory a day after securing a bronze medal at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympic Games.

“I think we’re so incredibly proud of ourselves. It has been an absolute journey to get here, but to be able to skate the way that we did yesterday and truly believe in ourselves, and let the training kind of speak for itself, was so incredibly memorable,” Gilles said, with her bronze medal hanging around her neck.

The pair, who have skated together for 15 years, were four-time medallists at the World Figure Skating Championships. Now in their third Olympic appearance together, they have finally broken through to climb onto the podium.

The skaters were visibly overcome with emotion when their performance came to an end to the sound of a roaring crowd in Milan.

“It was all just a blur. It’s a lot of feelings, a lot of exhaustion, a lot of relief, a lot of joy,” Poirier said. “But I think as Piper said, we were just so proud of what we were able to accomplish.”

Their story is one of endurance after years of skating together and facing hardships, both on and off the ice. For those who were in attendance, their performance was nothing short of thrilling.

Ana Luiza Rangel, who flew into Italy from Ontario to take in the excitement of the Games, said she’s been to countless skating events with friend and fellow skating fan Aaron Minocha. Rangel says she’s watched the Gilles-Poirier duo for 15 years, and when they won Wednesday night, everyone in the arena could feel it.

“It gave us chills, it was so worth it,” she said.

“I have been to so many different events in my lifetime,” Minocha said. “This truly was a once in a lifetime experience, because (Gilles and Poirier) truly had this Olympic moment.”

The two friends described it as one of the best nights of their lives, watching a pair they’d been following for years have such a stunning performance and leave it all on the ice. They feel they’re not alone, adding that the applause and support Gilles and Poirier received from the audience says it all.

Rangel said after she and Minocha left the arena and hopped on the subway, Gilles and Poirier were all that anyone was discussing, saying the Canadian pair “won the night!”

“It was the Olympic moment that so many people look for,” she said.

But their super-fan excitement doesn’t end there. The friends decided to head to “Blues Canal,” a pub in a Milan suburb that has become an unofficial Canada House, where fans have been gathering to watch events and celebrate together.

“All of the sudden, you see Paul and Piper come in towards the end of the night, and the whole bar erupts in cheer and applaud,” Minocha said, beaming ear-to-ear has he shared stories of Wednesday night. A surprise visit from Gilles and Poirier, just hours after their performance, with medals hanging around their neck.

“The bar sang ‘Oh, Canada’ for them,” said Rangel. “They’re performers, they do this for people, they want us to enjoy the performance, they’re usually very thankful that we show that love back to them.”

Rangel added that she snapped a few pictures of the pair and their family as they all celebrated together.

For Gilles, this skate may have meant something far more.

After surviving ovarian cancer and mourning her mother’s death from brain cancer, this performance was about perspective, not podiums.

“(My) third Olympic Games has just been a blessing,” Gilles said. “It’s not something that everybody gets to do every single day, so we really kind of just changed our mindset, and just looked at this opportunity we have, and let that guide us.”

It was that mindset that led them directly onto the Olympic podium.