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 20-year-old Hallie Clarke, who last year became the youngest athlete ever to win that title. Another interesting note: there's a small chance Lake Placid could host next year's Olympic bobsleigh, skeleton and luge events if construction on the Cortina track isn't completed in time. Italian organizers named the Upstate New York resort town their "official Plan B" recently.Speed skating single distances world championships (March 13-16 in Norway): Canada's long track skaters won a national-record 10 medals at last year's single-distances worlds in Calgary, though the only golds came in the non-Olympic men's and women's team sprints. Ivanie Blondin was part of that women's victory and added a pair of silvers — one with her Olympic-champion women's pursuit team and the other in the solo mass start. Blondin leads all Canadians with three medals (one of each colour) through two World Cup stops this season.Short track speed skating world championships (March 14-16 in Beijing): Canada's William Dandjinou is on a tear this season, racking up seven gold medals across the first four World Tour stops to take a commanding lead atop the men's overall standings. The reigning men's 1,000m world champ is the only skater to win a race at every distance. Triple 2022 Olympic medallist Steven Dubois remains among the world's best too.Curling world championships (various locations/dates starting in March): If she can survive the gauntlet that is the Scotties Tournament of Hearts to win her fifth Canadian title next month, Rachel Homan (40-2 this season) will try to repeat as women's world champion March 15-23 in South Korea. The men's worlds are March 29-April 6 in Moose Jaw, Sask., where six-time Brier champ Brad Gushue is the presumptive favourite to represent Canada after taking silver the last three years. Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant, coming off their Canadian mixed doubles trials victory on Saturday, can clinch an Olympic spot at their world championship April 26-May 3 in Fredericton.Freestyle skiing and snowboarding world championships (March 17-30 in Switzerland): More than a decade after she captured Olympic ski cross gold in Sochi, Canada's Marielle Thompson looks poised to contend again. The 32-year-old won two of the first three women's World Cup events of the season and now sits third in the standings — one spot behind ultra-consistent Canadian India Sherret (one win). Canada's Reece Howden is second in the men's chase after winning twice. On the moguls hill, Mikaël Kingsbury is (where else?) atop the men's standings with two golds in four starts this season as the all-time World Cup wins king and 2018 Olympic champ looks to add to his eight world titles.Figure skating world championships (March 25-30 in Boston): Last year in Montreal, the pairs team of Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps captured Canada's first figure skating world title since 2018 while ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier took silver for their third medal in four years. Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps won both of their Grand Prix events this season before an illness knocked them out of last month's Grand Prix Final, where no Canadians reached the podium. But their year ended on a happy note as the Chicago-born Stellato-Dudek got her Canadian citizenship, clearing them to compete for Olympic gold in Italy.Women's hockey world championship (April 9-20 in the Czech Republic): The second women's worlds of the PWHL era will almost certainly come down to another Canada-U.S. showdown for gold — the archrivals have met in 22 of the 23 finals to date. Last year in Utica, N.Y., Canada reunified the Olympic and world titles with a 6-5 overtime victory.