It's a big year for Canada's 2026 Winter Olympic contenders

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2025 is not an Olympic year. But it's the year before the year — we're now just 13 months away from the Winter Games in northern Italy. That means some of this year's global championships will take on extra importance as we try to identify Canada's top medal contenders for Milano-Cortina 2026.

Here's a roadmap to some of the key events in the realm of winter Olympic sports over the next few months:

Alpine skiing world championships (Feb. 4-16 in Austria): This event is only held in odd-numbered years, so 2023 men's super-G winner Jack Crawford and women's slalom winner Laurence St-Germain are still reigning world champs. Crawford became just the third Canadian man to capture an alpine world title, while St-Germain upset American star Mikaela Shiffrin for her stunning victory. Neither Canadian has won a World Cup medal since the 2022-23 season, but Cam Alexander has three of them in the downhill since taking bronze at the 2023 worlds.

4 Nations Face-Off (Feb. 12-20 in Montreal and Boston): There's no Russia, Czech Republic or Slovakia, but this new mini-tournament will serve as a little amuse-bouche for the return of NHL stars to the Olympics as Canada, the United States, Sweden and Finland square off in place of the all-star game. They'll all play each other once, then the top two teams will meet in the winner-take-all final in Boston. 

Bobsleigh and skeleton world championships (March 3-16 in Lake Placid, N.Y.): Canadian sliders are no longer raking in the medals like they did in the 2000s and 2010s. But we do have the reigning women's skeleton world champion in