5 Team Canada sports to watch this weekend: November 1-3

It’s the start of November and Team Canada athletes are getting into the swing of winter sport competition with the ISU Short Track World Tour, the Pan Continental Curling Championships, and the ISU Grand Prix de France for figure skating all on the go. 

But the summer sport season isn’t completely gone yet, as there is still the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup and WTA finals for tennis to watch this weekend.

Here’s what you don’t want to miss:

Short Track Speed Skating

After hosting the successful first stop on the ISU Short Track World Tour last weekend, Montreal is a bit of a surprise host for the second stop on the tour as well. Originally destined for Salt Lake City, the event needed to be moved after the Utah Olympic Oval was unable to acquire the newer required safety padding system in time. 

A second home event in a row will be a bonus for the Canadian Ice Maples, who earned six medals last weekend. William Dandjinou secured gold in both the 500m and 1500m, while Steven Dubois took bronze in the 1500m and silver in the 500m. The men’s 5000m relay team also snagged a gold medal, while the 2000m mixed relay team took bronze.

Saturday will feature the 500m and 1500m races for the men, along with the 1000m and 3000m relay for the women. Sunday will feature the men’s 1000m and 5000m relay, as well as the women’s 500m and 1500m, and the mixed relay event. 

If you’re in the Montreal area, you can purchase tickets to cheer on the Canadian Ice Maples here. 

Figure Skating

Two Canadian teams will compete in Angers, France this weekend at the Grand Prix de France. The competition is the third stop on the ISU Grand Prix Series.

Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud will take to the ice in the pairs competition as the reigning gold medallists of the event. After narrowly missing a podium spot at the Nebelhorn Trophy in September, the pair will look to secure their first international medal of the season in France.

Ice dancers Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac will also compete in Angers. The duo finished seventh at Skate America, the first Grand Prix stop of the season. At last year’s Grand Prix de France, Lauriault and Le Gac took fifth place.

Curling

The Pan Continental Curling Championships are ongoing on home ice in Lacombe, Alberta. 

On the men’s side, Team Canada–led by skip Brad Gushue–are the defending champions. With an unbeaten record after seven games, the Canadians have secured themselves a place in the semifinals. 

The women, led by skip Rachel Homan, also head into the semifinals with an unbeaten record after six games, and one more round robin game to play. This result secures Canada’s place at the 2025 World Women’s Curling Championship (Canada was automatically qualified for the men’s worlds as the host country). 

The men’s semifinals begin Thursday evening, followed by the women’s semifinals on Friday morning. The bronze medal games will be played later on Friday before the gold medal games close things out on Saturday.   

Swimming

The third and final stop on the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup tour is taking place this weekend in Singapore. Canada has been well represented by three swimmers throughout the short course tour–Mary-Sophie Harvey has racked up six medals (three gold, two silver, one bronze), Ingrid Wilm has collected five medals (two silver, three bronze), and Sophie Angus has secured a bronze medal.

All three of those athletes will be in action this weekend, with Harvey contesting a packed programme once again, taking on the 100m butterfly, 100m IM, 200m IM, 400m IM and 200m freestyle. Backstroke specialist Wilm will take on the 50m, 100m and 200m, while breaststroke specialist Angus will also take on the 50m, 100m, and 200m.

Tennis

Paris 2024 bronze medallist Gaby Dabrowski will compete in the WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, alongside Erin Routliffe of New Zealand. The duo only paired up in August of 2023, but quickly demonstrated their on-court chemistry, winning the US Open women’s doubles title that year. This season they were runners up at Wimbledon.

Dabrowski and Routliffe enter the WTA Finals ranked second in women’s doubles on the WTA ranking list.