University of Toronto Varsity Blues alumnus Paul Poirier, and his partner Piper Gilles, skated to ice dance bronze at the Milano Cortina Olympic Games on Wednesday night (Feb. 11).

The achievement marks the first Olympic medal for the three-time Olympians, who have been skating together since 2011.

Gilles and Poirier set a season-best score of 131.56 in the free dance and an overall score of 217.74 – also a season's best.

They are the first Canadians to make the individual ice dance podium since Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir's gold-medal performance at Pyeongchang 2018.

Poirier represented the Blues for one season, winning the 2011-12 OUA men's open freeskate title and helping U of T to a bronze-medal team finish at the provincial championship. Poirier graduated from U of T with a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics in 2015.  
 

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