Canada’s Para nordic skiers ready to take on Milano Cortina 2026

CANMORE, Alta. – Canada’s Para nordic head coach Brian McKeever anticipates high speeds and technical challenges in Para cross-country skiing and Para biathlon at the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games, set for March 6-15.

After analyzing the course during the test events earlier this year, McKeever gave the Val di Fiemme venue two thumbs up.

“It’s long steep uphills,” said the 16-time Games champion to Paralympic.org. “It is downhills with sharp corners. It requires more skill than they have had to possess in some of the other venues we have been at. This one has got some technicality to it that made me retighten my boots.”

With Mark Arendz of Hartsville, P.E.I. and Natalie Wilkie of Salmon Arm, B.C. leading the charge, Canada’s Para nordic skiing team served notice it is ready to produce another multi-medal performance at the Milano Cortina Games.

Just to recap the pair’s amazing performances in the 2024-25 season, Arendz earned his third straight Crystal Globe as overall champion in the men’s standing Para biathlon and the fourth of his career.

On the World Cup circuit, the 12-time Paralympic Games medallist earned seven wins in 11 starts. He stood on the podium in the remaining four competitions, and also was a double world champion at the Para biathlon worlds.

For her part, Wilkie was second in the women’s standing overall World Cup biathlon rankings. She won four World Cup races in 2024-25 and was a double champion at the world championships.

They both sparkled in cross country as well. Wilkie reached the podium in her five international races with a gold and four silver while Arendz collected three bronze.

McKeever describes his squad as a “team in transition”. Paralympians Brittany Hudak of Prince Abert, Sask. and sit skiers Derek Zaplotinsky of Smoky Lake, Alta., Collin Cameron of Sudbury, Ont., Lyne-Marie Bilodeau of Sherbrooke, Que., and Christina Picton of Fonthill, Ont. bring more experience to the team.

Young stars on the rise include Emma Archibald of Ottawa, who notched six top 10 performances in cross country and ranked fifth overall in the World Cup women’s standings, as well as visually impaired skiers Maddie Mullin of Fergus, Ont. and Logan Lariviere of Lively, Ont.

“Some of the squad are young future disrupters, but for now the focus is on getting them to races, getting them competition exposure, encouraging them to see what the competition looks like, what travelling feels like, what’s it like to be on the road,” McKeever said.

The younger skiers inject a fresh energy into the team.

“For some it’s their first time being away from home. It’s their first time to Europe. It’s their first time having to live without their parents. There’s the excitement of, ‘I just skied with this person’, who they have watched on TV and has the same disability as them,” he said.

“To have that bright eyed perspective is really good for everyone.”

Multiple Paralympic medallists Hudak and Cameron have grappled with injuries this year but overall, McKeever said there has been a solid training build towards the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympics.

He hopes to take his squad for a training camp to Wanaka, New Zealand, during the southern hemisphere winter – a place the Canadian team has been travelling to since 2007.

“It’s important for the Para team to have some exposure to snow in the summer,” he said.

With files from Paralympic.org