What to know for this week's speed skating World Cup in Calgary

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With the 2026 Winter Olympics just a little over a year away, Canada's long track speed skaters look poised for another successful Games.

In 2022, they won five medals in Beijing, trailing only the powerhouse Netherlands (12). And at last year's single-distances world championships in Calgary, Canadians racked up a national-record 10 medals — more than anyone else but the Dutch (13).

This week, the planet's top skaters are back at Calgary's aging Olympic Oval for a three-day World Cup meet starting Friday. It's the third of six stops on the tour and the first in almost two months.

Canadians reached the podium six times across the first two meets, held in Japan and China. Five-time world champion and 2022 Olympic women's team pursuit gold medallist Ivanie Blondin led the way with a medal of each colour at the season opener, winning gold in the women's 3,000m, silver in the team pursuit with her Olympic partners Isabelle Weidemann and Valérie Maltais, and bronze with Yankun Zhao in the mixed relay. Three-time world champ and 2022 Olympic silver medallist Laurent Dubreuil added a silver in the men's 500m at the opener.

Weidemann, a triple medallist at the Beijing Olympics, picked up a 3,000m bronze at the second World Cup stop. And Maltais was upgraded to silver in the mass start after Blondin got disqualified for illegal contact in her best event (she was the Olympic silver medallist in 2022).

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Expect a good showing from the