Winter Sports Suitable For Canadians Of All Ages

Canada is known as a country with a passion for winter sports and Canadians will soon demonstrate that again on the world stage.  

Italy will host the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics in February and Canada is expected to send at least 101 athletes. They will compete in all eligible sports including alpine skiing, biathlon, bobsleighing, cross-country skiing, curling, figure skating, free-style skiing, ice hockey, luge, Nordic combined, short track speed skating, skeleton, ski jumping, ski mountaineering, snowboarding and ski skating.

Canada is widely considered the birthplace of modern ice hockey with the first recorded indoor ice hockey game was played in Montreal on March 3, 1875. The National Hockey League was founded in 1917 in Canada and it expanded into the United States in the 1920s. It first became an Olympic sport in 1920. Asides from Canada and the United States, strong international programs have been developed in Russia (USSR), Sweden, Finland and Czech Republic.  

The sport of curling even dates further back in Canada. Scottish immigrants brought the sport to Canada and the country’s first curling club was founded in Montreal in 1807. Curling appeared as a demonstration sport in the 1924 Winter Olympics and it officially became a full medal sport in 1998 at the Nagano Winter Olympics. Today, curling is played in more than 60 countries with it having a high degree of popularity in Canada.  

Skiing has a long history that stretches back at least 8,000 years with rock carvings in Norway and well-preserved skis from Russia showing that people used skis to travel across snow for hunting and transportation. The world’s first ski club was founded in Norway in 1861 and the sport debuted in the Winter Olympics in 1924 with cross-country and ski jumping. Skiing in Canada is world-class as it has high mountains, reliable snow, and terrain for every level.

At the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, Canada earned four gold, eight silver and 14 bronze medals. Gold medals were earned in women’s ice hockey, snowboarding, speed skating, and short track speed skating.

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