More silver for Canada as Grondin, Kingsbury finish second in snowboard cross, moguls

Canada's Mikael Kingsbury celebrates winning the silver medal after the men's moguls final at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Livigno, Italy on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

MILAN -- Canada has landed on the podium for its fifth and sixth medals — both silver — at the Milan Cortina Olympics on Day 6, both on the hills of Livigno and both in narrow misses for the gold.

Snowboarder Eliot Grondin secured the latest medal for Canada after finishing just behind Austrian Alessandro Haemmerle in men’s snowboard cross, the Canadian’s third-ever Olympic medal.

Grondin’s previous haul includes another silver at the same event in Beijing 2022, where the 24-year-old from Ste-Marie, Que., also finished second to Haemmerle.

“A lot of emotion, for sure,” Grondin said. “Sharing the podium with Haemmerle again … it’s been tight with him, but he’s been one of my biggest rivals since I started racing snowboard cross at a high level.

“… We came here for gold, but at the same time, I rode as good as I could today. I had fun, silver it is and I can be happy with my week.”

In men’s moguls earlier in the day, freestyle skiing star Mikael Kingsbury missed out on gold in the narrowest of fashions — with a tiebreaker — while claiming silver.

Kingsbury, 33, from Deux-Montagnes, Que., matched the exact score of Australia’s Cooper Woods of 83.71 in the final run but lost out due to the Australian scoring higher marks for turns.

“I feel amazing. I’m very happy with my skiing. It was close, a tiebreak — unfortunately, I’m the guy not on the good side of it. But I’ve worked very hard for this medal," Kingsbury said.

It is Kingsbury’s fourth medal after gold in Pyeongchang 2018, as well as silver medals at both Beijing 2022 and Sochi 2014.

In Tesero, Edmonton’s Alison Mackie finished eighth in the women’s 10-kilometre interval start, 1:17.9 behind Sweden’s Frida Karlsson, who led a Swedish one-two ahead of Ebba Andersson, with American Jessie Diggins taking bronze.

Macklin Celebrini opened the scoring and Jordan Binnington made 26 saves for the shutout as the star-studded Canadian men’s hockey team opened their quest for gold with a 5-0 victory over Czechia.

Mark Stone, Bo Horvat, Nathan MacKinnon and Nick Suzuki scored Canada’s other goals, while Connor McDavid chipped in with three assists.

The Canadians meet the Swiss on Friday.

Elsewhere, Canada’s women’s hockey team, still without captain Marie-Philip Poulin due to injury, rebounded quite nicely with a 5-0 win over Finland.

Emily Clark, with two goals, Jennifer Gardiner, Daryl Watts and Kristin O’Neill scored in the win after Canada suffered a rough 5-0 loss to the United States on Tuesday.

“I think our team had a message to send. We hold ourselves to very high standards, so just continuing to work on our details, elevate our game, be the best that we can be and show the world what we have,” said Gardiner.

The Canadians will next face Germany in the quarterfinals on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the men’s hockey team opens against Czechia in Milan as NHL players compete at the Games for the first time since 2014, with Sidney Crosby chasing a third gold medal and Connor McDavid stepping onto the Olympic stage for the first time.

Canadian speedskater Isabelle Weidemann missed the podium in the women’s 5,000 metres, finishing fifth, 3.91 seconds behind gold medallist Francesca Lollobrigida of Italy.

Lollobrigida edged Merel Conijn of the Netherlands for gold, while Norway’s Ragne Wiklund took bronze.

Weidemann won silver in the event four years ago in Beijing.

This is a corrected story. A previous version stated that Kingsbury won bronze instead of silver at Beijing 2022 and Sochi 2014.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 12, 2026.

This is a corrected story. A previous version stated that Kingsbury won bronze instead of silver at Beijing 2022 and Sochi 2014.