Weekend Roundup: Peterman & Gallant book Olympic tickets, Canada wins bronze at SVNS World Championship

Another action-packed weekend saw Team Canada officially nominate its first two athletes for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.

On the summer sport side, the Canadian women’s rugby sevens team reached the world championship podium, Eleanor Harvey fought her way to a World Cup podium at home, and Ilya Kharun was a record-setter in the swimming pool.

Read on for more behind those exciting headlines.

Curling: Peterman and Gallant officially qualify for Milano Cortina 2026

With their sixth-place performance at the 2025 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship, Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant qualified as Team Canada for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games. On Monday they became the first Canadian athletes to be officially nominated to the next Olympic team.

READ: Curlers Peterman & Gallant are first athletes nominated to Team Canada for Milano Cortina 2026

After finishing third in their round robin, Peterman and Gallant advanced to the playoffs. They fell 7-5 to Estonia in the qualification game and then lost 8-4 to the United States in the battle for fifth-sixth place.

“Accomplishing that Olympic berth, it was definitely a big goal for us,” said Peterman. “But at the end of the day, it was a world championship. We wanted to be on the podium. So it’s a little bittersweet right now.”

“Our first mission was to qualify for the Olympics; we accomplished that,” said Gallant. “I’m proud of us for getting that done. And we battled today; we tried our hardest right till the very end. The results didn’t come today, but there’s lots we can learn and that we can take to Italy next year.”

This result will provide no shortage of motivation for the wife-and-husband tandem as they start their preparations to compete for Canada at Milano Cortina 2026.

Rugby: Canadian women take bronze at SVNS World Championships

Canada’s Women’s Sevens Team finished their season on a high, taking bronze at the SVNS World Championships in Los Angeles. They dominated the United States in the third place playoff game, coming away with a 27-7 victory.

It was the Americans who got on the board first, scoring in the opening minute, but it would end up being their only try of the game. The Canadians were able to quickly capitalize on a yellow card to the U.S. as Charity Williams and Carissa Norsten scored tries to put Canada up 10-7.

Not long after entering the game, Asia Hogan-Rochester scored their first of three tries late in the first half, giving Canada a 15-7 lead at the break. In the ninth minute, Hogan-Rochester picked up a loose ball, preventing a U.S. breakaway, and sped in to score a try, which they also converted. Hogan-Rochester completed the hat trick in the 13th minute.

This was the third podium in a row for Canada’s Women’s Sevens Team, which also won bronze at the SVNS series stops in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Swimming: National records set in Fort Lauderdale

Ilya Kharun stormed to a victory in the men’s 50m butterfly at the Pro Swim Series in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, setting a new Canadian record with his time of 23.09 seconds. That eclipsed Finlay Knox’s previous mark of 23.25 set in early 2024. Kharun’s time on Friday was also a Pro Series Swim record, breaking the 23.11 mark set by Matt Targett in 2012.

Kharun returned to the pool on Sunday to set his second Pro Swim Series record in as many days, winning the men’s 100m butterfly in 50.42 seconds. He won by over a 1.5 seconds while clocking a personal best. Kharun, who took bronze in the event at Paris 2024, broke American Shaine Casas’s previous Pro Swim Series record of 50.80.

On Thursday, Kylie Masse broke the Canadian record in the heats of the women’s 50m backstroke with her time of 27.13 seconds. She went on to finish third in the final. Masse also finished third in the final of the women’s 100m backstroke, clocking 58.90.

Summer McIntosh finished second in the women’s 400m freestyle to American star Katie Ledecky. She then nearly matched her personal best in the women’s 200m backstroke, stopping the clock in 2:06.82, just 0.01 off her PB set in 2023, as she finished second to American Regan Smith.

Athletics: Arop wins 800m at Grand Slam Track in Miami

Marco Arop posted Canada’s best result of the weekend at the Grand Slam Track in Miami, finishing second overall in the men’s short distance. He opened with a personal best 3:35.95 in the 1500m, good enough for seventh in the field. He then won the 800m in a season best 1:43.69. He finished two points back of Josh Kerr of Great Britain who had won the 1500m and was fifth in the 800m.

Andre de Grasse made his Grand Slam Track debut over the weekend and finished sixth overall in the men’s short sprint standings. After being eighth in the 100m, he placed fourth in the 200m in a season best time of 20.23 seconds.

Meanwhile, at the second Diamond League stop of the season in Keqiao, China, Sarah Mitton placed fourth in the women’s shot put. The two-time reigning world indoor champion had a best throw of 19.59m. She finished fifth the week before in Xiamen, China.

READ: World champion shot putter Sarah Mitton on handling disappointment and embracing joy in sport

Fencing: Harvey wins World Cup bronze at home

Backed by a home crowd in Vancouver, Eleanor Harvey won four straight elimination matches and went on to take home bronze at the FIE Fencing World Cup.

In the semifinal, Harvey was outmatched by American Lee Kiefer, the world number one and two-time reigning Olympic champion, by a score of 15-10. Harvey was a co-bronze medallist with Italy’s Arianna Errigo who lost in the other semifinal match to the eventual champion, fellow Italian Martina Favaretto. The bronze medal is Harvey’s seventh career World Cup medal, but her fourth since she made history at Paris 2024 where she won Canada’s first ever Olympic medal in fencing.