Courtney Sarault of Moncton, Modern Brunswick, became the first Canadian short track speed skater from outside Quebec to win an individual Olympic medal, taking bronze in the women’s 500 metres at Milano Cortina 2026. Her time of 42.427 seconds marked a breakthrough for a province where speed skating has been a growing, but historically under-recognized, sport.
Sarault’s success is part of a larger story of burgeoning speed skating talent emerging from New Brunswick, a province with fewer than a million people. She followed her bronze medal performance with a silver in the women’s 1,000m on Monday, finishing in 1:28.523 – a significant improvement from her 11th-place finish in the same event at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. “I hope that this inspires people that maybe are from smaller towns that they can likewise dream big and you’re not limited to your smaller town,” Sarault told CBC Sports after the 500m race. “If you want something, you can work for it. Anything’s possible.”
Alongside Sarault, Rikki Doak of Fredericton is also competing for Canada, and Brendan Corey, also from Fredericton, is representing Australia. The three athletes represent a remarkable achievement for New Brunswick’s speed skating program, which began as a small, volunteer-driven initiative. Derrick MacLeod, the provincial technical director and coach for Speed Skate New Brunswick, described the program’s early days as “a labour of love,” with a group of around a dozen skaters training five days a week in Fredericton.
The initial goal of the program was modest: to produce a single medallist at the Canada Games and to provide a quality training environment for young athletes. MacLeod noted the program’s success has far exceeded initial expectations. “You want to appreciate where Quebec is,” MacLeod said. “They are the epitome of short track. But that said, we can compete against them. We can beat them. We know that.”
Sarault’s journey to the Olympics involved a significant commitment, making a three-hour round trip from Moncton to Fredericton five days a week to train with the province’s best skaters when she was around 13 years old, after her family moved back to New Brunswick from Ontario. MacLeod highlighted her resilience as a key trait from the beginning.
Doak and Corey followed different paths to the Olympics. MacLeod described Doak as a standout talent from a young age, achieving national championship victories at the youth level. Corey, while not initially as naturally gifted, demonstrated a strong work ethic and coachability. He did not advance to the final in the men’s 1,000m or 1,500m events, but continues to compete in the 500m.
The success of these athletes is already having a ripple effect within New Brunswick. Registration numbers for speed skating programs have doubled in the last four years, and the province has also produced promising younger skaters like Courtney Charlong, who recently won gold in the 500m and bronze in the 1,000m at the world junior short track championships. Charlong’s hometown of Campbellton, located in northern New Brunswick, demonstrates that speed skating talent is not concentrated in a single area of the province.
New Brunswick currently boasts three Olympic-sized ice surfaces, seven speed skating clubs, and approximately 600 skaters, coaches, and officials. A group of supporters gathered at Willie O’Ree Place in Fredericton, the athletes’ former training ground, to watch the Olympic competition, and another group assembled in Dieppe, near Moncton. Edison Wasson, head competitive coach with the Codiac Cyclones club, told CBC that having three New Brunswick athletes competing at the Olympics makes “that path seem a little more solid and a little more real.”
Sarault is also slated to compete in the women’s 3,000m relay on Wednesday, and has a chance to add another individual medal in the women’s 1,000m, with quarterfinals scheduled for Monday. The province’s high-performance program is currently on hiatus, awaiting the development of another group of approximately a dozen skaters to train together. MacLeod anticipates this will happen soon, citing the increased registration numbers.
