Background

Tom Stephen is set to make his Olympic debut at Milano Cortina 2026 after winning the men’s 10km classic at the Nordiq Canada 2026 Olympic Winter Games Trials. It was his first race of the season, having returned to skiing on snow just 10 days earlier after battling a back injury.

Stephen made his FIS World Cup debut in March 2022, appearing at the last two stops of the season. He went on to compete in three World Cup races in early 2024 and then appeared at four World Cup stops (a total of nine races) in the second half of the 2024-25 season.

Stephen competed at four straight editions of the FIS Junior World Championships from 2019 to 2022. He achieved a career highlight in 2020 when he was part of Canada’s history-making silver medal-winning team in the men’s 4x5km relay alongside Xavier McKeever, Olivier Léveillé, and Rémi Drolet. He had his best individual performance at the junior worlds in 2021 when he placed fifth in the 30km mass start classic.

Stephen competed at the FIS U23 World Championships in 2024 and 2025, highlighted by a fifth-place finish in the 20km mass start classic in his second appearance.

A Little More About Tom 

Getting into the Sport: Started competing in cross-country skiing at age 10 after having started skiing at a very young age… Followed his sister into the sport but quickly grew to love it… Outside Interests: Loves fly fishing… Pursuing an engineering degree at the University of Calgary… Odds and Ends: Had his dream of competing for Canada sparked by watching Alex Harvey do so well internationally… Role model is Olympian Jesse Cockney who became one of his coaches… Favourite quote: “Stressed spelled backwards is desserts”…