Canadian skater Piper Gilles cried and jumped with joy when she won a bronze medal in ice dance at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, a triumph that came just three years after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
She said she never could have envisioned the moment when her medical ordeal began.
“I think it’s a great example for anybody going through any sort of dark time, mental health or health issues, that you can do hard things no matter what,” Gilles, 34, told Skate Canada after the performance on Wednesday, Feb. 11.
“You can just get out of bed and keep believing in yourself and keep chasing your dreams, anything can happen.”
It’s the first Olympic medal for Gilles and her skating partner, Paul Poirier.
Ovarian Cancer Diagnosis
Gilles found out she had Stage 1 ovarian cancer on Jan. 16, 2023 — her 31st birthday — an experience she discusses in the new Netflix documentary series “Glitter & Gold: Ice Dancing.”
“It was so, so scary,” Gilles said about the diagnosis. Besides being frightened about her health, she wondered if she could continue to skate and train for competition.
She initially went to the doctor after experiencing vague symptoms, which is often the case with ovarian cancer.
“I started kind of feeling ill — just nauseous and period-like pains, specifically on the left side,” she recalled. There was also persistent fatigue.
The most common ovarian cancer symptoms include bloating, feeling full quickly, frequent urination and bowel habit changes.
About 21,000 women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2026 and more than 12,000 will die, the American Cancer Society estimates.
Ovarian cancer is rare in women under 40, the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance notes.
There are no routine screening tests for the disease, so it’s often found late when it has already spread. But Gilles was vigilant about getting checked out, and early detection saved her life, she wrote on Instagram.
Scans and tests showed a 3.5-inch cyst on her left ovary with a tumor attached to it.
Return to the Skating Rink
Gilles underwent surgery to remove the mass. She said she was lucky that no additional treatment, like chemotherapy, was required. But it was painful to move for weeks afterward.
She returned to the ice in February 2023.
“I slowly ramped up my training while wearing a pregnancy compression belt to keep everything secure,” Gilles told Toronto Life.
She spent the next year in fear the cancer would return. It took about two and a half years for the skater to feel like herself, but today, she’s doing well and is currently cancer-free, she said in the Netflix documentary.
Gilles’ own medical ordeal came after she lost her mother, Bonnie, to glioblastoma brain cancer in 2018. She called her mom “my hero, my motivator, my biggest critic, my biggest supporter” in an interview with the Toronto Star.
“I fought for her,” she said on Netflix about what kept her going during ovarian cancer treatment.
“If she could see me and what I’m up to, she’d be proud. It just made me appreciate every moment in life. It’s like, every day I get to wake up and go to the rink, it’s a blessing — even if it’s hard. I’m glad I get to go through the hard stuff because the alternative is way worse.”
