What to watch in Olympic sports this weekend

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Following last week's Canadian Olympic trials, there are no big curling events until after Christmas. Figure skating is also on an extended (and unwanted) break after next week's Grand Prix Final in Japan was cancelled due to new travel restrictions related to the omicron variant.

But even without those marquee attractions, this weekend's winter Olympic sports calendar is plenty full. Here are the biggest things to follow:

Canada's most dominant Olympic athlete is back.

Moguls skiing may look like an impossible, death-defying sport to you and me. But for Mikaël Kingsbury, victory has become about as routine as buckling up his helmet. The 29-year-old Quebecer is indisputably the GOAT, and has been for some time. He's piled up 65 World Cup victories in either moguls or dual moguls (the latter is a non-Olympic event) and has won nine consecutive moguls season titles. He owns three world titles in each discipline and is the reigning Olympic men's moguls gold medallist. He's as close to a sure thing as there is in sports.

Kingsbury's quest for a 10th straight World Cup moguls title begins Saturday at the season opener in Finland. Watch the men's and women's events live at 9 a.m. ET on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem. Read about what makes Kingsbury tick in this profile by CBC Sports' Devin Heroux.

Canada's resurgent long track speed skaters are (almost) home.

After a very successful start to the season in Europe, the team rolls into the North American leg of the World Cup circuit (starting today in Salt Lake City) with a lot of momentum. The hottest Canadian is reigning men's 500-metre world champion Laurent Dubreuil. He won a bronze today — his fifth medal in as many 500m races this season. Isabelle Weidemann, Ivanie Blondin and Ted-Jan Bloemen (the reigning Olympic men's 10,000m champ) are also having good years, while Canada is ranked No. 1 in the women's team pursuit and No. 2 in the men's.

Next weekend's World Cup meet is in Calgary, which should give Canada's skaters another boost. They've been on the upswing over the last few years after a couple of quieter Olympic cycles, and they should be a big source of medals in Beijing this winter. The data company Nielsen Gracenote projects Canadian long track speed skaters will reach six podiums in Beijing — more than a quarter of the country's expected total.

If you're reading this in time, you can catch the rest of today's action in Salt Lake City until about 6 p.m. ET here. Watch live races Saturday and Sunday at 2:20 p.m. ET on CBC Sports' streaming platforms.

Canadian bobsledders will try to keep the medals coming.

Christine De Bruin and Kristen Bujnowski took bronze in the two-woman event at each of the first two World Cup meets (both held on the same track in Austria). They also finished third at the Olympic test event in Beijing in October. Reigning Olympic two-man champion pilot Justin Kripps won bronze in both that event and the four-man last week.

Canada also has multiple contenders in the new discipline of women's monobob, which is making its Olympic debut in Beijing. De Bruin, Cynthia Appiah and Melissa Lotholz are ranked fifth, sixth and seventh in the World Cup standings, and Appiah placed third at the Olympic test event.

Meanwhile, the most accomplished bobsledder Canada has ever produced had a big day off the track. Kaillie Humphries, who won two Olympic and two world titles before a bitter split from the Canadian team, got her U.S. citizenship on Thursday, all but ensuring the star pilot will be able to compete for the American team in Beijing. Humphries won the 2020 and '21 two-woman world titles and the '21 monobob world title for the U.S., but the Olympics have more stringent eligibility rules.