Jacobs captures curling gold, Blondin skates to silver for Canada on Day 15 in Milan

MILAN — Canada’s Brad Jacobs delivered Olympic gold in the men’s curling final with a win over Great Britain, while speedskater Ivanie Blondin secured her second straight silver in the women’s mass start on Day 15 of the Milan Cortina Olympics.

Jacobs skipped the Canadian men’s curling team to a 9-6 victory over Great Britain’s Bruce Mouat in a tight game.

The match turned in the ninth end, when Canada scored three for an 8-6 lead that Mouat and the British rink could not overcome in the 10th.

“We’re very lucky to be Canadian and super proud to just go and get the job done,” said Jacobs. “The dream is this, the dream is the top of the podium.”

Jacobs was the last Canadian men’s skip to win Olympic gold when he topped the podium at the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia.

It’s also the second Olympic gold medal for teammates Ben Hebert and Marc Kennedy, who won gold at the Vancouver Games in 2010, and Brett Gallant’s first after winning bronze in 2022.

“I’m 44 years old now. The older you are, the more you appreciate everything going on around you,” said Kennedy.

“Sometimes you can just enjoy being a part of a really good curling game, regardless of whether you win or lose. You can just enjoy your teammates, enjoy the shots, enjoy it almost like you’re a fan of the game.”

Meanwhile, Blondin, the 35-year-old defending silver medallist from Beijing 2022, earned her second speedskating medal of the Games, after previously teaming up with Valérie Maltais and Isabelle Weidemann to win a gold in the women’s team pursuit.

The Ottawa skater added a silver to her resumé on Saturday after crossing the line behind Marijke Groenewoud of the Netherlands in the 16-lap race known for upsets, jostling, and strategy. It was as good a race as any for Blondin to finish her Olympic career.

“If I look back at my entire career, I would say that it was defined with grit,” she said. “Every single time that I failed, I just got back up and pulled myself through again. So that is kind of what it means to me.”

Maltais fell at the beginning of the mass start race, but recovered to place fifth. Both Maltais and Blondin have said this will be their final Olympics.

“It is a lot of lasts for me this season,” Blondin said. “It has been a very emotional season in that sense.”

Meanwhile, Rachel Homan’s Ottawa-based team of Tracy Fleury, Emma Miskew and Sarah Wilkes beat American Tabitha Peterson 10-7 on Saturday to win bronze at Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium.

It’s Homan’s first Olympic medal and Canada’s first in women’s curling since 2014, when Jennifer Jones led the team to gold at the Sochi Games.

“There’s no better feeling than stepping on the ice and trying to battle against anyone to get a medal for your country. We didn’t take that lightly,” Homan said.

“Obviously, the loss can sting, not getting to that gold medal final, but we didn’t let that affect us today — obviously some emotion, but we put that aside.”

The medal came after Canada overcame a 1-3 start to win five round-robin games in a row and secure a playoff spot. A semifinal loss to Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg dropped Homan into the bronze-medal game.

“We were kind of in single elimination for what felt like the entire week,” Homan said. “And you know, we just kept staying in the process and staying in the moment.”

Canada’s Reece Howden made an unexpected early exit from the men’s ski cross event on Saturday, after entering the event as a medal favourite. The three-time Crystal Globe winner from Chilliwack, B.C., blasted event organizers for staging the competition in poor conditions that included heavy, wet snow.

“This is just a joke, really,” he said. “We would never run a downhill race in these conditions … I bet you we were going 10 to 15 seconds slower than this morning, at least. You can’t pass, it’s a whole different course. This is not ski cross.”

The country’s medal chances in freestyle skiing also took a blow after former gold medallist Cassie Sharpe confirmed she will not be competing in the Olympic halfpipe final after a nasty fall in qualifying on Thursday.

Sharpe, who has a heavy concussion, facial contusion and some lingering dizziness, said in a video that she’s looking forward to cheering on teammates Amy Fraser and Rachael Karker in the final, which has been pushed from Saturday night to Sunday morning due to poor weather.

Ahead of Sunday’s closing ceremony in Verona, the Canadian Olympic Committee announced that Valérie Maltais and short track speedskater Steven Dubois have been named the country’s flag-bearers.

Dubois won a gold medal in the men’s 500 metres and was also part of the mixed relay team that earned silver, while Maltais helped Canada repeat as Olympic champions in women’s team pursuit.

Maltais also earned bronze medals in the 3,000 and 1,500 metres.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 21, 2026.