The 2026 Winter Olympic athletes who call Ottawa home
Posted Feb 10, 2026 11:47:39 AM.
Last Updated Feb 10, 2026 12:14:20 PM.
The nation’s capital is home to several top athletes competing on the world stage at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympic Games.
After four days, Canada’s medal count is two bronzes, one in women’s speedskating and the other in women’s freeski slopestyle, and a silver, won by the Canadian short-track speedskating mixed team.
As the games continue, the country is searching for its first gold.
Siblings Hannah and Jared Schmidt, both from Ottawa, are competing at this year’s Olympics.
The 31-year-old and 28-year-old are competing in freestyle skiing, in their second Olympic appearance for the maple leaf. Hannah placed seventh overall in Beijing. In the last several years, she’s sustained injuries, including in 2024 when she fractured multiple bones in her heel and ankle, cutting her season short.
Hannah started competing in ski cross at the age of 25 and plans on becoming a police officer after her sports career.
The latest in the 2026 Olympics
Her younger brother Jared placed 10th overall in the last Winter Olympics. He’s had injuries as well, setting him back in the 2019-20 season. He fully tore his MCL, requiring reconstructive surgery. It would be several years between his World Cup podiums, but when he did, Jared and Hannah would do it together.
“He won the next two races as well, which included a historic day when he and sister Hannah were both victorious,” the Team Canada website notes. ” It was the first time that siblings had won ski cross World Cup races on the same day.”
The siblings come from a family of athletes, with their cousin Madeline Schmidt competing in kayak sprint in Tokyo and their mother, Lesley Anne, who pushed for women’s canoe events to be added to the Olympics.
“Never washes his race socks because he heard somewhere that clean socks are not as fast,” the biography on Jared notes.
Speedskaters Ivanie Blondin and Isabelle Weidemann are returning to the Milan Cortina games after a gold medal performance in 2022.
Blondin made her debut in Sochi 2014 just four years after going from long track to short. The high-achieving medal earner has over a dozen wins at the ISU World Single Distances Championships, including in the team pursuit programs. However, it did not come easy for the now 35-year-old skater.
The Team Canada website notes that she was battling fatigue for several months early in her speedskating career, before being diagnosed with mono.
“Coming home from PyeongChang without a medal when she had been a podium threat in multiple events was tough for Blondin, and she found herself battling depression,” the website reads.
To overcome, she has been open about her mental health journey and has started taking medication and doing therapy. She also fosters animals.
Blondin’s teammate, Weidemann, took up speedskating early, following friends and family into the sport. She loved sprinting and had her Olympic dream sparked by watching Kristina Groves’ performance at the Vancouver 2010 games.
The three-time Olympic medalist captured a gold, silver and bronze at her second games in 2022. These accomplishments resulted in her being selected as the closing ceremony flag bearer that year.
Zach Connelly is debuting at the Olympics in biathlon. The 24-year-old from the nation’s capital first appeared on the World Cup circuit in the 2022-23 season and achieved his career best a year later.
He first got into the sport at 13 years old, and outside of it, likes climbing and surfing.
Emma Miskew returns to the world stage on Team Homan in women’s curling. She was the third on the team skipped by Rachel Homan and won gold in 2017, the country’s first world title since 2008.
Miskew and Homan have been curling together since they were 11 years old. Miskew first started curling at age 5 and competing by 9, after her father introduced her to it.
“She gets goosebumps each time she puts on a Team Canada jersey for the first time,” the Team Canada website reads.
This is the second Olympics for Mike Evelyn O’Higgins and his teammates in the two and four-man bobsled. The 32-year-old began his international career in 2019 and quickly earned podium finishes.
He was recruited by Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton after attending the 2018 RBC Training Ground regional final, where he said he wanted to do skeleton, but was told “he was too big and would be better for bobsleigh,” the biography on the website notes.
“(He was) attracted to bobsleigh for its combination of speed and power, but also because of the movie Cool Runnings.”
In both programs, O’Higgins and his teammates placed within the top 10.
Ottawa’s youngest athlete competing at the games is 23-year-old Kayle Osborne, who is filling out Team Canada’s women’s hockey goalie roster.
She first wore the Canadian jersey in 2020 at the IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship, appearing in two games and winning silver.
She was drafted 28th overall by the New York Sirens in the 2024 PWHL Draft.
