Canada at the Winter Olympics

Canada (IOC country code CAN) has been part of every Winter Olympic Games and has always won at least one medal. Only five other countries share this special record: Austria, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and the United States.

Canada’s best showing was at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, where its athletes brought home 29 medals in total. The most impressive moment came at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, when Canada set a new record with 14 gold medals, more than any country had ever won in a single Winter Olympics. This beat the old record of 13 golds, held by the Soviet Union (1976) and Norway (2002).

Canada has been a host for the Winter Games twice—first in Calgary and later in Vancouver. The country has also hosted the Summer Olympic Games once, in Montreal.

Medal tables

See also: All-time Olympic Games medal count and List of Olympic medallists for Canada

Medals by year

  Host country

Medals by sport

  Leading in that sport

One of Canada's ice hockey gold medals was won during the 1920 Summer Olympics. This table includes this medal, resulting in the discrepancy between the medals by games and medals by sports tables.

Nordic combined and ski mountaineering are the only current winter sports and disciplines that Canada has never won a medal in.

• Canada has finished with the highest Canadian Winter medals total at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games with 29 medals.
• Canada has finished the 2010 Winter Olympics at the first place at the medal table, with 14 gold medals.
• Canada was the first nation to win 14 gold medals at a single Winter Games. In 2018, Germany and Norway matched this record. Then in 2022, Norway set a new record with 16.

Olympians

Some Canadian athletes have competed in many Winter Olympics. Jasey-Jay Anderson took part in six Winter Olympics, from 1998 to 2018.

Cindy Klassen holds records for the most Winter Olympic medals by a Canadian, with six medals in total. She also won five medals at the 2006 Winter Olympics, the most by any Canadian at a single Winter Games. Clara Hughes also earned six medals, but some of these were from the Summer Olympics as well.

Biathlon

Main article: Biathlon at the Winter Olympics

Canada won its only biathlon medals thanks to Myriam Bedard at the Albertville and Lillehammer Winter Olympics.

Bobsleigh

Main article: Bobsleigh at the Winter Olympics

Canada has won five gold medals in bobsleigh. The first was won by Vic Emery's four-man team in Innsbruck in 1964. The second gold was won by Pierre Lueders and Dave MacEachern in the two-man event in Nagano in 1998, where they tied for gold with an Italian team. In 2018, Justin Kripps and Alexander Kopacz also tied for gold with a German team. Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse made history by winning gold medals in both Vancouver in 2010 and Sochi in 2014, the first time a two-woman team won back-to-back golds.

Skeleton

Main article: Skeleton at the Winter Olympics

In the 2006 Turin games, Mellissa Hollingsworth-Richards won Canada’s first medal in skeleton. Later, Duff Gibson became the first Canadian to win a gold medal in the men’s skeleton event. At the 2010 Vancouver games, Jon Montgomery won gold in the men’s event.

Curling

Main article: Curling at the Winter Olympics

Curling is a very popular sport in Canada. Both the men's and women's curling teams have won medals at each of the five Winter Olympics where curling was an official sport. Canadian curlers also did well when curling was shown as a fun extra sport in 1988 and 1992. Some of the top teams were led by skips like Sandra Schmirler, Brad Gushue, Kevin Martin, Jennifer Jones, and Brad Jacobs, and they won gold medals. In 2018, Kaitlyn Lawes and John Morris won gold in the first mixed doubles curling event at a Winter Olympics.

Ice hockey

Main articles: Ice hockey at the Olympic Games, Canada men's national ice hockey team, and Canada women's national ice hockey team

Hockey is Canada’s favorite winter sport, and Canadians love the game. The country has done very well at the Olympic games, winning 6 of the first 7 gold medals. But by 1956, Canada’s teams couldn’t compete with teams from the Soviet Union that had government support. When Canada’s best players from the National Hockey League started playing in the Olympics in 1998, hopes were high, but the Czech Republic won gold, and Canada lost to Finland for the bronze medal. Canada finally won gold again in 2002 in Salt Lake City, which made everyone celebrate.

The 2010 games were held in Vancouver, home of the Vancouver Canucks, making it the first Olympics in an NHL city since the league’s players began competing.

Women’s ice hockey was added to the Olympics in 1998 in Nagano, and Canada won the silver medal. Canada has played in every gold medal game, often against the United States. Canada has won gold five times (2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2022) and took silver twice (1998, 2018).

Note: Ice hockey was also part of the Summer Olympic program in the 1920 games in Antwerp, but it is mentioned here for completeness. Since it was held at a Summer Games, it is not counted in Canada’s Winter Olympics performance.

Luge

Main article: Luge at the Winter Olympics

Alex Gough won Canada's first ever Olympic medal (Bronze) in Luge at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

Skating

Main article: Figure skating at the Olympic Games

Canada has won medals in figure skating in 14 out of 17 Winter Olympic Games since 1948. Famous winners include Barbara Ann Scott in 1948, pairs Barbara Wagner and Robert Paul in 1960, Jamie Salé and David Pelletier in 2002, and Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir in 2010 and 2018. In 2018, Canada also won gold in the team event at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. Virtue and Moir made history at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics by winning the first gold medal for ice dancing at their first Olympics, and they were the youngest pair and the first North Americans to win this event. Other notable skaters include Toller Cranston, who won bronze in 1976, and Brian Orser and Elvis Stojko, who both won silver medals in different years.

Main article: Short track speed skating at the Winter Olympics

Since short track speed skating was added to the Olympics in 1992, Canada has won many medals each time. Marc Gagnon, who won 3 gold and 2 bronze medals between 1994 and 2002, and François-Louis Tremblay, with 2 gold, 2 silver, and 1 bronze from 2002 to 2010, are among Canada’s top Olympians with five medals each.

Main article: Speed skating at the Winter Olympics

Canada’s gold medalists in speed skating include Gaetan Boucher, Catriona Le May Doan, Cindy Klassen, Clara Hughes, Christine Nesbitt, and Ted-Jan Bloemen. In 2006, Cindy Klassen became the first Canadian to win five medals in one Winter Games, and she holds the record for the most medals by a Canadian Winter Olympian with six total. Clara Hughes also tied this record and is unique for winning medals at both the Summer and Winter Olympics.

Skiing

Alpine skiing

Main article: Alpine skiing at the Winter Olympics

Canada's most famous alpine skier is Nancy Greene, who won gold and silver medals at the 1968 games in Grenoble.

Cross country skiing

Main article: Cross-country skiing at the Winter Olympics

Canada's first medal in cross country skiing was won by Beckie Scott in the women's 2 × 5 km pursuit event at the 2002 games in Salt Lake City. She later moved up to gold after other skiers were found to have broken rules.

Chandra Crawford won gold in the sprint event at the next games, and the team of Scott and Sara Renner won silver in Turin in 2006.

Freestyle skiing

Main article: Freestyle skiing at the Winter Olympics

Canada has done very well in freestyle skiing since it joined the Winter Olympics in 1992. Jean-Luc Brassard (1994), Jennifer Heil (2006), Alexandre Bilodeau (2010 & 2014), Justine Dufour-Lapointe (2014), and Mikael Kingsbury (2018) have all won gold in the moguls event. Canada has won gold in the women's ski cross at every Olympics that included it (Ashleigh McIvor, 2010; Marielle Thompson, 2014; and Kelsey Serwa, 2018). Brady Leman (2018) won gold in the men's ski cross event. In 2014 and 2018, Canadian women also won silver medals (Serwa in 2014, and Brittany Phelan in 2018). Dara Howell took gold in the slopestyle event in 2014. Cassie Sharpe added a halfpipe gold in 2018.

Canadian skiers also placed in the top three in aerials at the 1988 and 1992 games, when it was a special event.

Nordic combined

Main article: Nordic combined at the Winter Olympics

Canada has never won an Olympic medal in Nordic combined. Their best finish was tenth place in the individual normal hill competition at the 1932 games.

Ski jumping

Main article: Ski jumping at the Winter Olympics

Canada won the bronze medal in the mixed team ski jumping event at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Snowboarding

Main article: Snowboarding at the Winter Olympics

Ross Rebagliati won a gold medal in giant slalom snowboarding when the sport made its Olympic debut at the 1998 Nagano games. He lost the medal at first because of a test result, but it was returned to him after an appeal because the substance was not banned.

Ski mountaineering

Main article: Ski mountaineering at the Winter Olympics

Canada has not been able to join the ski mountaineering events at the Winter Olympics since the sport was added in 2026.