Four Ottawa-area athletes returned home on Monday night with their baggage slightly heavier than when they left for the 2026 Winter Olympics about a month ago.
The reason for the weight difference? Well, each of them won an Olympic medal.
The athletes touched down in Ottawa on two separate flights on the evening of Feb. 23. Curler Emma Miskew was the first to arrive at 7:30 p.m., followed by hockey players Brianne Jenner, Emily Clark and Jocelyne Larocque about two-and-a-half hours later.
It was a long travel day for the athletes, some of whom faced hours-long delays in the multi-leg journey from Italy to Ottawa. Now back on home soil, the athletes said they’re happy to be back after nearly a month away from home.
Now, it’s back to reality for the Canadian Olympic athletes, some of whom are looking forward to some much-needed rest, while others switch gears as they prepare for the second half of their professional seasons.
Emma Miskew brings home bronze
After curling together since they were just 11 years old, Ottawa curlers Emma Miskew and Rachel Homan can now add their first-ever Olympic medals to their
long list of curling accolades
.
Team Homan won the bronze medal against the U.S. to cap off a tense, resilient run that had friends and family on the edges of their seats in the early hours of the morning. It’s the first time Canada has reached an Olympic podium in women’s curling since Jennifer Jones won gold in the 2014 Sochi Games.
At the Ottawa International Airport, Miskew was greeted by friends, family members and many well-wishers from the Ottawa Curling Club who crowded the arrivals area for a special homecoming.
For her parents Jeannie and Art Miskew, it was one of the first times they’ve ever gotten out of the car to pick up their daughter at the airport following an out-of-town bonspiel. Typically, they pull up, pop the trunk, and wait for Emma.
They changed that routine on Monday night, parking the car and going inside — Jeannie waving a Canadian flag and Art wearing his Team Canada jacket — to join others waiting for Emma.
“We knew this one would be different,” Jeannie said.
A group of kids carrying hand-drawn signs were the first to embrace Miskew, as she quickly scooped one of them in her arms. One kid asked to see her medal, which Miskew pulled out of her sweater pocket, and then another kid promptly asked if they could see the stuffed animal that was handed to each athlete during the medal ceremony.
“It’s really nice to see the faces that I’ve missed for the last few weeks who weren’t able to be there with us, but always were cheering,” Emma told the media after landing. “It’s always nice to get that warm welcome. I always feel the love in Ottawa.”
The bronze medal was the result of a tense, resilient run that her parents watched live from a friend’s cottage on L’Île Cadieux, near Vaudreuil, Que.
Art, Jeannie said, didn’t miss a shot. She, on the other hand, frequently had to leave the room because the pressure felt unbearable.
“I’m well known for that,” she admitted. “I sometimes have to leave. Art would never leave the room, no matter what. But sometimes I just had to walk away and come back a little bit later.”
The tension only mounted after Canada dropped three of its first four games and found itself in must-win territory. Emma had been in that position before, at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, where, after losing their opening three games, Homan’s Team Canada went on to a 4-5 round-robin record that left the foursome out of the playoffs.
While competing in a round robin with some unsettling similarities to her first Olympics, Emma said she was also worried history was going to repeat itself.
“Starting one-in-three, we were really worried it was going to go the same way that it did the first time,” she said. “We just really battled hard and stuck to what we could control and one game at a time, one shot at a time, to get into that semi.”
There were two moments Emma said she’ll remember about her first Olympic medal: the first was when Team Homan realized they’d won the bronze, and the second was when the team stepped on the podium together.
“We were so excited and emotional, and we had worked so hard not only for that event, but for years beforehand,” she said. “I’m just super proud of my teammates for how hard they battled, and just the resilience.”
Jeannie said the bronze-medal game against the U.S. was the hardest to sit through.
“We wanted them to come home with a medal,” she said. “It was a very, very good game. Both teams played extremely well. They got a couple of breaks later on, and we were able to capitalize on it. That was great.”
Jeannie didn’t expect her daughter would want to go out and celebrate following a long day of travelling. “She’ll probably just want to go home and see her dogs, Luna and Harley. She misses them like crazy.”
Rest is in store for Emma in her next few weeks back at home. The Olympics marked the end of a non-stop curling season for Team Homan, which is now looking ahead to some recovery time before hitting the ice again in April.
Women’s hockey players find silver linings
The airport crowd thinned out by the time Brianne Jenner, Emily Clark and Jocelyne Larocque got off the plane, nearly two-and-a-half hours after Miskew’s arrival, but a few dedicated fans stuck around to welcome the Ottawa Charge athletes home.
A
silver medal
wasn’t what the Canadian women’s team was hoping for following a heartbreaking 2-1 overtime loss to the Americans, but the Charge athletes said they’ve had a few days to find their own silver linings from the experience.
For Charge captain Jenner, who is returning home with her fourth career Olympic medal, one of the highlights was getting to bring her four-year-old daughter, June, to her first-ever Olympics.
“She loved being in Italy. She had a blast,” Jenner said with a smile. “I think she slept through most of the final, but I think it’s going to be an amazing memory for her.”
While the late-night welcoming committee in Ottawa was sparse, Clark said the team met many fans on the journey home, including during an extended delay in Toronto. Dressed head-to-toe in their Team Canada gear, the athletes were certainly hard to miss.
“Wearing the Canadian uniform, we got a lot of congratulations, a lot of people cheering for us,” said Clark, who earned her third career Olympic medal in Italy. “We did our best for Canada, and we’re happy that people watched and that they’re proud of us.”
Being back on home soil also means a quick transition back into PWHL hockey, which resumes on Saturday in front of a home crowd for the Ottawa Charge. It’ll be a busy few days for the Olympians, who will no doubt be fighting jetlag as they
get back on the ice
with their Charge teammates.
These athletes are used to playing against each other in international competitions, only to return home and become teammates again. Larocque, who earned her fourth Olympic medal in Italy, said she’s excited to celebrate everyone’s success when returning to the Charge locker room.
In addition to the three Canadian athletes, the Charge also sent two Americans, two Finns and one Czech athlete to the Winter Games. All eight of the Charge players faced each other in the preliminary round.
“You bring out the best in each other and you want the best for each other’s games, and we’re excited for each other’s success too,” Larocque said. “But we definitely prefer playing in the same jerseys as those guys.”
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