One of my favourite athletes at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina is Canadian pairs figure skater Trennt Michaud.
Sure, he’s from Belleville. Plus, he’s the only guy at the Olympics that I even know.
But along with that, Michaud was an absolute pleasure to cover when he was working his way up the national and international figure skating levels, and I was pounding a keyboard in the sports department at The Intelligencer. Take for example, Michaud’s reaction to winning the city’s Athlete of the Year award in 2017.
“I didn’t even know I was eligible,” said Michaud, sporting a huge grin, when he accepted his award nine years ago.
Though he was training out of town, Michaud was indeed eligible, having met one of the criteria for the Robinson-Kelleher Memorial Award by being born in The Friendly City.
For a guy who is now competing at the ultimate level of his sport, Michaud’s initiation into the world of figure skating was as humble as his acceptance speech in 2017. He admitted he was ‘terrible’ when he first started skating.
“When I was little and my mom put me in Timbits, I was the worst skater on the ice,” Michaud had told me. “Someone would take the puck away from me and I couldn’t get it back. I took a lot of penalties.”
Next stop, the Quinte Figure Skating Club, where Michaud was introduced to the fundamentals of skating. In his own words, “I never looked back.”
All the way to Italy, in fact.
In 2017, Michaud was fresh off a Canadian junior pairs championship victory with his then partner Evelyn Walsh when he got the nod as Belleville’s top athletic performer of the year. Now, Michaud and his partner, Lia Pereiera, are the defending Canadian senior champs.
Nine years ago, it was clear that Michaud, then 21, was still developing his physique for the rigours of his sport. Today, watching him on the ice in Italy, it is equally clear he hasn’t been avoiding the squat racks at his weight training facility and his biceps would not be out of place at a bodybuilding show.
In their Olympic debut last week, Michaud and Pereiera turned in a very strong performance to finish in the top five, missing fourth place by a whisker in the short program of the team event. The dynamic duo scored a new personal best of 134.42.
It’s pretty obvious that at the rink and in the gym, Michaud has been putting in the work. And then some.
From an ankle-bending kid who declared himself ‘the worst on the ice’ to an Olympian, Michaud’s journey has been inspirational. Those of us in the local media who covered part of that journey are proud we got to play even a very small role in it.
And we’re even more proud of Michaud.
LUCKY 13
With a Friday the 13th occurring as we approach the midway mark of February, let’s take a look at the greatest players to ever wear No. 13 in the four major North American professional sports leagues.
Baseball: Alex Rodriguez
A World Series champion with the Yankees in 2009, A-Rod was a 14-time All-Star who wrapped up 22 years in the Majors with almost 700 career home runs (696) and a lifetime batting average just below .300 (.295) along with 2,086 RBIs.
Basketball: Wilt Chamberlain
The Big Dipper might actually be the greatest athlete, period, to wear 13 in any sport. At 7-feet-1 and 275 pounds, Chamberlain dominated most of his 14-year NBA career as arguably the best big man in the history of the game.
Inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978, Chamberlain was later named to the NBA’s 35th, 50th and 75th all-time anniversary teams. His famous 100-point game registered in 1962 is a record unlikely to ever be broken.
Football: Dan Marino
Can you believe the Pittsburgh Steelers passed on Marino in the 1987 NFL draft, a guy who grew up in the Steel City and played college ball for the Pitt Panthers? Pittsburgh’s loss was Miami’s gain as Marino went on to become the greatest quarterback in Dolphins history and one of the best all-time in the NFL.
Known for his lightning-quick release, about the only thing Marino never accomplished in his illustrious 17-year NFL career was win a Super Bowl.
Hockey: Teemu Selanne
The Flying Finn produced at better than a point-per-game pace over the course of his outstanding NHL career with 1,457 in 1,451 games (including 684 goals) and was a key player in a Stanley Cup championship for the Anaheim Ducks in 2007.
