{"id":67895,"date":"2026-02-21T18:42:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T23:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/21\/speed-skaters-maltais-dubois-named-canadas-flag-bearers-for-closing-ceremony\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T00:50:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T05:50:25","slug":"speed-skaters-maltais-dubois-named-canadas-flag-bearers-for-closing-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/21\/speed-skaters-maltais-dubois-named-canadas-flag-bearers-for-closing-ceremony\/","title":{"rendered":"Speed skaters Maltais, Dubois named Canada\u2019s flag-bearers for closing ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"

Speed skaters Maltais, Dubois named Canada\u2019s flag-bearers for closing ceremony<\/a>
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https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/sports\/olympics\/winter\/canada-closing-ceremony-flag-bearer-announcement-2026-olympics-9.7101194<\/a>
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Publish Date: 2026-02-21 18:42:00<\/a>
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Speedskater Valerie Maltais and short track speedskater Steven Dubois will carry the Maple Leaf into Sunday’s closing ceremonies of the 2026 Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

The Quebec athletes were both named Canada’s flag-bearers Saturday for the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics finale in Verona, Italy,<\/p>\n

Dubois captured a gold medal in the men’s 500 metres and was also part of the mixed relay team that earned silver.<\/p>\n

“I really wanted to enjoy the experience and I wanted to medal and I think I really did both,” said the 28-year-old who sports a handlebar moustache.<\/p>\n

“I really did both and to get this opportunity for me to represent the country and bearing the flag is a dream opportunity. I really did not expect this at all.”<\/p>\n

WATCH | Maltais, Dubois named Canada’s closing ceremony flag-bearers:<\/strong>\"\"<\/p>\n

Val\u00e9rie Maltais and Steven Dubois named as Canadian flag-bearers for the closing ceremony<\/p>\n

The Olympic medallists will lead Team Canada at the Milano Cortina 2026 closing ceremony. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Maltais helped Canada repeat as Olympic champions in women’s team pursuit with Ivanie Blondin and Isabelle Weidemann.<\/p>\n

Maltais also earned bronze medals in the 3,000 and 1,500 metres.<\/p>\n

“The first thing that came to my mind was what a way to wrap my Olympic journey,” Maltais said.<\/p>\n

“I’m having fun and I’m skating with passion and I am so excited to share that with Canada.”<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old from La Baie, Que., competed in her fifth and final Olympic Games. She owns a career five medals, including a short track relay medal from 2014 before switching to long track.<\/p>\n

Dubois of Terrebone, Que., has also collected five Olympic medals in his career, including gold, silver and bronze in 2022 when he helped the men’s relay team to victory.<\/p>\n

Maltais had a discussion with her husband Jordan Belchos, a speedskater who raced in the…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speed skaters Maltais, Dubois named Canada\u2019s flag-bearers for closing ceremony https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/sports\/olympics\/winter\/canada-closing-ceremony-flag-bearer-announcement-2026-olympics-9.7101194 Publish Date: 2026-02-21 18:42:00…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67896,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/ais\/b4f6adb3-7ecc-4a84-90bb-bd54a5c284d9,1771708862592\/full\/max\/0\/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C0%2C1280%2C720%29%3BResize%3D620","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67895"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67895"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canada.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67897,"href":"https:\/\/canada.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67895\/revisions\/67897"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}