‘Just really proud of how I bounced back this season’

Tyson Langelaar was a fan of James Bond movies growing up. The spy series a staple for him on plane rides.

This 007, however, did not capture the Winnipeg-born speed skaters’ heart — it broke it.

One of the most agonizing results of Langelaar’s career came recently at the Canadian Olympic speed skating trials in Quebec City, where he saw his dream of representing Canada at next month’s Olympic Games in Italy instantly melt away.

Langelaar, who needed a top-two finish in the men’s 1,500-metre event, finished in third with a time of 1:46:883. The difference between him and second-place Daniel Hall was a fraction of a skate blade or, more accurately, seven hundredths of a second.

Adding salt to the wound, Langelaar also finished third in the 1,000m race with a time of 1:09.540 — three tenths of a second behind Anders Johnson.

“To be totally honest, I don’t know if it has fully sunk in still,” Langelaar told the Free Press.

The 26-year-old was vying for his second trip to the Olympics. He qualified for the 2022 Games in Beijing, where he skated in the 1,500m and helped Team Canada to a fifth-place finish in the team pursuit.

Langelaar tried not to get caught up in the “what-ifs” in the hours following his race but, by that evening, his head was spinning as he watched back the tape, combing over every stride in search of an answer for where he could’ve gained a 10th of a second.

“I watched, and I said, ‘No, I couldn’t have (done more),’ so that kind of gave me closure, and that’s why I’m proud of how I raced, because I truly believe I did the best I could that day and sometimes in sport, that’s just not enough,” said Langelaar, noting his support system has also helped tremendously since that day.

“I had hoped that my season would be done at the end of February, not the beginning of January. So, I’m trying to figure out these next two months of how do I not waste this time, whether it’s focusing on resetting my mind, fixing my body to be prepared and rested towards next year, if I want to continue, and stuff like that.”

Langelaar said he feels like he’s in the best shape of his life, which only further adds to the frustration of not reaching the Olympics in this cycle. He turns 27 next month, and the reality that he will be 31 when this opportunity comes again has muddied his outlook in the sport.

“I’ve seen how much has happened in the last four years, last eight years, and there’s a bit of confusion there, but I do know, whatever kind of path I take, it will hopefully work out, and I’ll try to do my best. So that’s reassuring, as well,” he said.

It was Langelaar’s first time at the trials in eight years. He skated at the 2018 trials as a teen, but that was more for experience, while the 2022 trials were cancelled owing to the pandemic.

As far as he’s concerned, racing at the Olympics is one thing, but qualifying for it is an entirely different beast emotionally. As nerve-wracking as he remembers his Olympic debut being four years ago, Langelaar said this month’s trials made for the most pressure-packed weekend of his life.

“I think with the qualifiers, there’s so many layers, it’s hard not to think ahead of, ‘I’m gonna go’ when you haven’t qualified yet,” he said.

“I think just all week knowing the pressure of what the competition means… it can take a toll on you. But also saying that, I honestly think I handled it really well, I think I raced really well and, at the end of the day, it didn’t go in my favour. And that sometimes happens.”

Despite the unfavourable outcome, Langelaar still has plenty of reason to hold his head high after a career year that included a runner-up finish at the time trials in October, three events in Norway and the Netherlands, a pair of fourth-place finishes at the 2025 Canadian Long Track Championships — he set a personal best in the 1000m race — and a winning performance at December’s time trials.

This season followed a trying 2024 campaign that was derailed by a partially torn hip flexor that sidelined Langelaar for six weeks, costing him a spot on the national team for the first time in his career and revoking his funding from Speed Skating Canada.

Langelaar got by with funding from his sponsors, including a partnership with the Winnipeg Jets that saw him sport a custom-designed, branded skin suit with the Jets logos at the trials.

“I’m just really proud of how I bounced back this season and really gave it my all,” he said. “I’m definitely just proud of doing that, even though the outcome is not what I had hoped for.”

Langelaar will still be in Milan next month to support his girlfriend, Brooklyn McDougall, who will skate for Canada in the women’s 500m event.

Following the Olympics, he will return to Winnipeg to spend time with family and take part in the Skate the Oval fundraiser for the Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba at the Oval at the Cindy Klassen Rec Complex on Feb. 1.

“That’s kind of the second-best outcome of all this,” Langelaar said of McDougall qualifying. “It might sting a little bit when I first get there to cheer on Team Canada but, at the end of the day, to see Brooklyn race at the Olympics again, that’ll be a very special day and fun to be a part of.”

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