This is an excerpt from The Buzzer, which is CBC Sports’ daily email newsletter. Stay up to speed on what’s happening in sports by subscribing here.
Here’s the latest from the world championships in figure skating, freestyle skiing and snowboarding, plus a quick preview of the men’s curling worlds.
Freestyle skiing and snowboarding: Grondin on top of the world
Éliot Grondin captured Canada’s third gold and seventh overall medal of the freestyle ski and snowboard world championships in Switzerland today, winning the men’s snowboard cross final with a decisive move late in the race.
Austria’s Alessandro Haemmerle and Jakob Dusek appeared to be working together to box out Grondin in the four-man final. But it backfired when the Austrians made contact with each other going into a bend, forcing them too wide. Grondin seized the opportunity, passing them on the inside and holding the lead through the finish line for his first world title.
It’s the second world-championship medal for the 23-year-old Grondin, who took bronze in 2021 before winning a pair of Olympic medals in 2022 — silver in the men’s event, bronze in the mixed doubles. He won the World Cup title last year and is leading the chase again with one stop left in the season. That’s next week at Quebec’s Mont-Sainte-Anne.
Canada’s Meryeta O’Dine came close to her first worlds podium today, finishing fourth in the women’s final. She was also a double Olympic medallist in 2022, taking bronze in the women’s event and another bronze in the mixed with Grondin.
The team event at the worlds takes place Saturday at 6 a.m. ET. Also on tap for the closing weekend are the medal rounds in aerials, ski big air, and ski and snowboard halfpipe.
Canada won four medals in these events at the previous world championships, in 2023. Brendan Mackay captured gold in the men’s ski halfpipe, while Rachael Karker took bronze in the women’s. Elizabeth Hosking earned the silver in the women’s snowboard halfpipe, and Megan Oldham claimed bronze in the women’s ski big air. Oldham grabbed another bronze last week in the slopestyle for her fourth career medal at the worlds.
You can watch every event live on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem. Here’s the full streaming schedule. See the latest results for skiing here and snowboarding here.
Figure skating: Gilles and Poirier take up the torch
Defending pairs world champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps finished well off the podium last night in Boston, once again struggling to recapture the magic that propelled the Canadians to their first world title last year in Montreal.
Plagued by injuries, illness and inconsistency over the past few months, Stellato-Dudek, 41, and Deschamps, 33, placed seventh in Wednesday’s short program with their worst score of the season and couldn’t dig themselves out in last night’s free skate. They finished more than 10 points out of the medals. “We fought til the very end,” said Stellato-Dudek.
2023 world champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan returned to the top of the podium, edging Germany’s Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin by less than a point for their second world title. Italy’s Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii took the bronze. Canadians Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud finished 11th while Kelly Ann Laurin and Loucas Éthier were 16th.
Canada’s other top medal hopefuls hit the ice today as Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier compete in the opening stage of the ice dance event, which was in progress at our publish time. Gilles and Poirier took silver last year in Montreal and bronze in 2021 and ’23.
Canadians Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha will try to make another run at the dance podium after placing fifth last year, while Alicia Fabbri and Paul Ayer are making their worlds debut. Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who are married to each other, will have plenty of support from the Boston crowd as they chase their third straight world title. The closing free skate is on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. ET.
The women’s free is tonight at 6 p.m. ET. Canada’s Madeline Schizas was a pleasant surprise in Wednesday’s short, skating a clean program to place sixth after finishing 18th last year. A top-10 finish would give Canada a second women’s entry for the Olympics next year.
Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto is trying to become the first skater in 65 years to win four consecutive women’s world titles. But she’ll have to make up ground after placing fifth in the short. American Alysa Liu, the bronze medallist in 2022, is the unexpected leader.
Competition concludes with the men’s free on Saturday at 6 p.m. ET. American star Ilia (the Quad God) Malinin jumped into the lead last night with a spectacular short program that fell just shy of the world record set by Nathan Chen at the 2022 Olympics. But the defending champ will have to hold off Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama, who’s only a few points back after a stellar skate of his own. The perennial runner-up took silver for the third time last year and also finished second at the 2022 Olympics and this season’s Grand Prix Final, where he was beaten by Malinin again.
The lone Canadian men’s entry, Roman Sadovsky, sits 15th after finishing 19th last year.
You can watch every skate, including Sunday’s exhibition gala, live on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem. Here’s the full streaming schedule and here are the latest results.
Curling: Will Canada snap its men’s world title drought?
Eight years after Brad Gushue won Canada’s last men’s curling world championship, another Brad will try to end the dry spell when the tournament gets underway Saturday in Moose Jaw, Sask.
Brad Jacobs defeated Gushue in the Brier semifinal earlier this month in Kelowna, B.C., halting the St. John’s skip’s bid for his fourth consecutive Canadian title. Jacobs, representing Alberta, went on to defeat Manitoba’s Matt Dunstone in the final to win his first Brier since 2013, when he curled for Northern Ontario.
Jacobs took silver at the world championships that year before capturing Olympic gold in 2014 in Sochi. He’s now playing with the Calgary-based trio of Marc Kennedy, Brett Gallant and Ben Hebert, who have all won world titles with other skips.
Following his 2017 gold, Gushue took silver four times, including the last three years in a row. He lost last year’s final to Sweden’s Nik Edin, who won his record seventh world title.
Jacobs’s top rivals over the next nine days include Edin, 2023 world champ Bruce Mouat of Scotland and Italy’s Joël Retornaz, who beat Mouat for the bronze last year. Canada’s opponents this weekend are Japan, Germany and South Korea.
The tournament can be seen on TSN. Here’s the schedule and results.
