Carolina Hiller-Donnelly is preparing for her biggest stage yet: the 2026 Winter Olympics. (Image Credit: Dave Holland/Speed Skating Canada)

By Tommy Osborne

Carolina Hiller-Donnelly

Prince George athlete hopes to translate world cup success into Olympic medal

Jan 27, 2026 | 4:38 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Carolina Hiller-Donnelly, a speed skater from Prince George, is no stranger to the brightest lights the sporting world has to offer. Having competed in multiple world championships and winning a world cup gold medal in January 2025 in the International Skate Union World Cup Team sprint competition, Hiller-Donnelly has competed among the world’s best, and has multiple medals to show for it. Now, she is preparing for her biggest opportunity yet, as she will make her Olympic Debut in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina, Italy.

“I’m just really proud to be from Prince George and to feel the support from everyone in my hometown. I feel so much support from everyone there, so I’m excited to go to the Olympics and represent. It’s going to be awesome,” Hiller-Donnelly said.

She’ll be skating without her top supporter by her side, as her mother Ariadne passed away in March, 2025, after a battle with cancer. The loss impacted Hiller-Donnelly deeply, even impacting her immediate skating performance after, but as she prepares for the Olympics she says she still feels her mother’s support every time she steps on the ice.

“She did tell me: ‘you’re going to go to the Olympics, you are going to do this.’ It was the one of the last things she told me. And she believed that in me, so I just I held on to that through this whole year,” she said.

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“She is just constantly with me. She’s on the line with me, she’s helping me get through my races, and it is really positive now in my races, feeling her presence with me,” she continued.

Her mother’s support pushed her through especially challenging times, and Hiller-Donnelly said without that support she may not even have had the chance to go to the Olympics. She explained she was considering retirement in 2021-22 when she failed to make the national team, but she decided to give it one more push, and a combination of excellent coaching and determination helped her achieve incredible new heights.

“Four years ago, I had kind of hit a plateau in my skating. I wasn’t improving anymore in my races, I was really stuck in my technique as well with my races, and I just couldn’t reach that next level. I thought ‘maybe this is my potential, maybe I have reached that.’ But, in the back of my mind, I was like, ‘you know what? I want to try one more year.’ And my mom was also someone who really believed in my potential, and she said, ‘you know what? Try it. Just try it a little longer, just give yourself one more year, see what happens,” Hiller-Donnelly said.

Four years later, Hiller-Donnelly is achieving personal bests and feeling incredibly confident in the days leading up to the Olympics.

“Just this past weekend at our last World Cup, here in Inzell, Germany, I had two top-eight finishes, career bests, so that confidence is there in me right now. I’m just so excited to carry that into Milan, into the Olympics,” she said.

“I feel like confidence in the line is huge for me. If I can go to the line and I believe in myself and what I can do and what I can perform on ice on that day, that is a huge win in itself for me. And I know that I’ll skate well, so that has been the main driving force these past four years is finding that confidence again,” she added.

As she mentally prepares for competing, she hopes to keep herself focused on doing what she does best, but also allowing herself to soak in the gravitas and energy of the moment.

“Some athletes like to think of it as ‘this is just another competition. This is just another world championships, going to treat it the same way.’ And then on the other side, some athletes are like, ‘this is the Olympics, this is bigger than anything ever.’ I think it’s important to be somewhere in the middle there. Yes, we’re racing against our same competitors that we have been racing all year and at world championships, but it’s also an incredible opportunity to be around other sports and other athletes and to take that in as well,” she said.

Hiller Donnelly will be competing in long track speed skating in the 1000 and 500 metre categories, which will take place on February 9 and 15 respectively.