World champ Hallie Clarke, veteran Jane Channel lead Canada's skeleton team into Olympics

Hallie Clarke is set to make her Olympic debut next month at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games as part of the Canadian skeleton team announced Wednesday by Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton and Canadian Olympic Committee.

The 21-year-old from Brighton, Ont., won the women's skeleton world championship in 2024, and followed with a gold medal at the 2025 world junior championships.

Clarke will be joined in Italy by veteran Jane Channell of North Vancouver, B.C. Channell will be competing in her third straight Olympics, with her best showing a 10th-place finish at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Josip Brusic of Okotoks, Alta., is the lone male on the skeleton team.

Canada's team came under scrutiny in the lead-up to Wednesday's announcement. American slider Katie Uhlaender said a decision by Canadian coaches to pull some of their athletes out of a second tier North American Cup race on Jan. 11 in Lake Placid, N.Y., was unfair, since it lowered the total standings points available in that event.

The IBSF investigated and found no rules were broken by Canada's decision.

The skeleton competition at Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, runs Feb. 12-15.

Canada hasn't won an Olympic skeleton medal since Jon Montgomery's memorable gold in Whistler, B.C., at the 2010 Vancouver Games.