U of T · September 2026 0% Contents Subscribe
Gabrielle De Serres, Paul Poirier and Luka Stoikos in a composite image.
← Field and Ice · U of T, September 2026

Four Blues at the Winter Olympics

Four Varsity Blues alumni are at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina, Feb. 6-22: Gabrielle De Serres plays hockey for Team France, Paul Poirier ice-dances at his fourth Olympics, Luka Stoikos bobsleds at his first, and Justine Todd officiates hockey at her third.

Gabrielle De Serres (BCom 2022) made the OUA and U SPORTS all-rookie teams in 2017-18 and was OUA East MVP in her final Blues season before playing for the Montreal Force and Cergy-Pontoise, then joining France's national team in 2024-25.

Paul Poirier (BA 2015, MA 2020) won the 2011-12 OUA men's open freeskate title with the Blues and is now at his fourth Olympics with ice-dance partner Piper Gilles; the two are four-time ISU World Championships medallists. Luka Stoikos, who ranks fourth in U of T football records with 1,140 career kickoff return yards, qualified for bobsled less than a year after being drafted by the CFL's BC Lions.

Justine Todd (BSc 2006), who helped the Blues win the 2003 OUA championship, is officiating women's hockey at her third Olympics, having also worked the 2018 and 2022 Games.

a compilation of three images of Olympic athletes put together
Photo: U of T Alumni News
a compilation of three images of Olympic athletes put together
Photo: U of T Alumni News

Reported from Meet the Varsity Blues alumni at the 2026 Winter Olympics, by Jill Clark (U of T Alumni News, February 6, 2026).

More from the original reporting: alumni.utoronto.ca/news/meet-varsity-blues-alumni-2026-winter-olympics

Until the next issue

The class keeps arriving.

Sixty-nine stories end this issue, but the university doesn't pause between them. A new orientation week is already being planned; a lab somewhere on campus is already running the next experiment. Alumni Digest will be there in October for the next one.