Mikael Kingsbury of Team Canada competes during the Men's Freestyle Skiing Moguls Qualification during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games at Genting Snow Park on Feb. 3, 2022 in Zhangjiakou, China.Cameron Spencer/Getty Images
Kingsbury likely going for gold
Canadian moguls star Mikael Kingsbury will likely be skiing for his third Olympic medal and will be gunning for his second consecutive Olympic gold, to become only the second freestyle skier in history to repeat as Olympic champion. The first to do so was Alexandre Bilodeau, who accomplished the feat in the 2010 and 2014 Games. All three final rounds of the men’s moguls event will take place on Saturday.
Courtney Sarault and Alyson Charles of Team Canada skate during a short track speed skating practice session ahead of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games at Capital Indoor Stadium on Feb. 1, 2022 in Beijing, China.Catherine Ivill/Getty Images
Canada a strong medal contender in short-track mixed relay
Medals will be handed out on the short track Saturday, with the mixed team relay playing through from the quarter-finals all the way to the A and B final. Canada’s team is expected to be a strong podium threat in the event, which is making its Olympic debut in Beijing with names such as five-time Olympic medalist Charles Hamelin and 21-year-old rising star Courtney Sarault to pull from.
Canada's Isabelle Weidemann skates during the women's 3000-metre competition at the ISU World Cup speed skating event in Calgary on Dec. 10, 2021.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
Weidemann a major speed-skating medal threat
Ottawa’s Isabelle Weidemann will compete in the women’s 3,000-metre speed-skating event, where she’ll enter, according to the International Skating Union’s rankings for the 2021-22 season, as the world’s top-ranked skater in long distances (3,000 and 5,000 metres). Though she has acknowledged that she hasn’t performed as she could have in the past in the month of February, the 26-year-old will get a chance to put that behind her with a strong, perhaps podium, performance on Saturday.
Blayre Turnbull of Canada scores a goal against the Swiss in a 12-1 win at the Beijing Olympics on Feb. 3, 2022.DAVID W CERNY/Reuters
Big early test for Canada’s women’s hockey team
The Canadian women’s hockey team will face its first real test of the tournament when it sees Finland. This matchup between the second- and third-ranked teams in the world isn’t likely to affect whether the two sides will reach the knockout round of the tournament (they’re both in Group A, along with the top-ranked United States, and five teams from Group A will advance to the quarter-finals), but the contest could play a large factor in seeding when elimination is on the line. Outside of future tournament implications, an encounter with a quality team early in their campaign should prove to be a good learning opportunity for Team Canada.
Canada's Jasmine Baird catches air on the slopestyle course ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics on Feb. 2, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China.Lee Jin-man/The Associated Press
Other events of note happening
Beyond the three events already mentioned, there are three more medal events happening Saturday in the mixed relay biathlon, women’s 7.5+7.5 skiathlon cross-country skiing race and the women’s normal hill individual ski jumping event. Additionally, Canada’s Rachel Homan and John Morris will play a couple more matches in mixed doubles curling, facing off against Sweden and the U.S. Lastly, Canadians Jasmine Baird, Laurie Blouin and Brooke Voigt will begin their Olympics during qualification rounds of women’s snowboard slopestyle.