BEIJING, China – Canada got off to a good start on the first official day of competition at the Beijing Olympic Games with a two-medal collection. But one of them is probably not what the country anticipated.

In search of a second consecutive triumph at the Winter Olympics, Quebecer Mikaël Kingsbury was beaten by Sweden’s Walter Wallberg in the moguls event on Saturday.

Penultimate to hit the track among the six competitors in the super-final, Kingsbury took first place ahead of Japan’s Ikuma Horishima, with a score of 82.18. It was without counting on an imperial performance from Wallberg, who obtained a score of 83.23.

Wallberg thus ended Canada’s supremacy in moguls at the Olympic Games. Thanks to Alexandre Bilodeau, in 2010 and 2014, and Kingsbury, in 2018, athletes from across the country had climbed to the top step of the podium each time.

For Kingsbury, it is still a third Olympic medal, he who also won silver in 2014 and gold in 2018. He is the first to achieve such a feat.

Earlier in the day, Isabelle Weidemann gave Canada its first medal of the Games with a third place finish in the 3000m event in long track speed skating.

The Dutch Irene Shouten and the Italian Francesca Lollobrigida, however, did better than Weidemann. In passing, Shouten broke the Olympic record in the discipline in 3:56.93.

Never mind, Weidemann was by no means disappointed.

“I’m excited to have completed the first event (distance). I was pretty nervous today. We’ve been here a long time and I’ve been waiting for this first race for a long time. I’m happy and I feel a little more comfortable now. I’m looking forward to the next distance events,” said Weidemann.

Her compatriots Valérie Maltais (4:04.27) and Ivanie Blondin (4:06.40) finished 12th and 14th.

In short track, a penalty slipped Canada to fourth place in the 2000-metre relay final, an event presented for the first time at the Olympic Games

Previously, Florence Brunelle, Kim Boutin and Alyson Charles had passed the qualifications in the 500 meters. Pascal Dion and Jordan Pierre-Gilles had done the same in the 1000 meters.

Meanwhile, Canada’s medal hopes in the women’s snowboard slopestyle event remained alive and well.

Quebecer Laurie Blouin finished seventh at the Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou and earned her pass for the final of this discipline which will take place on Sunday.

Facing strong winds and temperatures hovering around minus-20 degrees Celsius, Blouin scored 66.85 points on her first qualifying run and climbed into fourth place.

Positioned well for the final, Blouin upped the ante on her second run and amassed 71.55 points.

Blouin is trying to climb on the podium for the second consecutive Games, after winning the silver medal in Pyeongchang in 2018.

Blouin will not, however, be accompanied by a compatriot in the final, while Jasmine Baird and Brooke Voigt failed to break into the top 12 snowboarders, with 15th and 22nd places, respectively.

In women’s hockey, despite the absence of injured Quebec forward Mélodie Daoust, Canada beat Finland 11-2.

Brianne Jenner and Sarah Nurse led the attack with hat tricks.

Canada is still undefeated in two games and has scored 23 goals.

As for Keegan Messing, he finally got the green light to fly to Beijing, after presenting four negative tests for COVID-19. Messing had tested positive before the Canadian team flew to China.

Canadian figure skating champion Messing is expected to arrive Monday, a day before the men’s short program. He had already been ruled out of the team competition, in which Canada currently sits sixth after three of four short programs.

In mixed curling, Rachel Homan and John Morris lost 6-2 to Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson and Almida De Val. The Canadian duo have a record of three wins and two losses and are tied for fourth in the standings.

In the women’s 15 kilometer skiathlon, Cendrine Browne took 20th position with a time of 47:58.1. She crossed the finish line 3:44.4 behind the winner, Norway’s Therese Johaug.

Katherine Stewart-Jones was 23rd (48:17.3), Dahria Beatty was 28th (48:52) and Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt was 44th (50:11.7).

In the men’s individual normal hill ski jumping event, Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes and Matthew Soukup managed to qualify for the final round.

In biathlon, in the 4×6 km mixed relay, Canada finished 14th out of 20 teams.