Refreshed Langelaar returns to international speedskating oval

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This article was published 06/11/2024 (398 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Tyson Langelaar experienced the thrill of competing at his first Olympic Games in 2022, but what followed, a disappointing 2023 season in which he did not qualify for the World Cup circuit, made him consider retirement — albeit briefly.

The 25-year-old Winnipegger, who finished third in the men’s 1,500 metres at the recent Canadian Speedskating Championships, is refreshed and energized for a return to the World Cup that opens later this month in Nagano, Japan.

“There were some post-Olympic blues lingering, let’s say,” said Langelaar Wednesday via phone from the national long track team’s training base in Calgary. “And I was struggling to kind of make the next step in skating. After making Olympics in 2022, I was hoping for another progression and the most frustrating thing was I was in pretty good shape off ice and even during practice on ice it was pretty good, but it just wasn’t aligning during the race weeks.”

Langelaar, who finished 22nd the the men’s 1,500 metres and helped Canada to fifth place in the team pursuit at the Bejing Winter Games, admitted he wasn’t enjoying his sport as much as he had in the past. His confidence waned as a result.

“There were probably two or three times where I finished a race and I went home and I actually was thinking about kind of calling it quits — maybe I should finish my my university degree and move on,” said Langelaar. “In the short term, you’re like, ‘OK, why am I even doing this?’ But then you kind of take a minute.

“I did do some stuff pretty good in that race and I did screw up on a few mental and technical cues throughout the race, so I understand why it happened. But there were a lot of days where I was just confused and didn’t realize why things weren’t going well.”

In the off-season, Langelaar enlisted the support of national team mental performance consultant Dr. Dave Paskevich while also deciding to adjust his training strategy in the weight room. He also shifted from the distance training group to the sprint group at the national training centre.

The change also meant switching to Will Dutton, the national team’s new lead coach.

“He’s a successful ex-skater and this year I’ve kind of focused more on the sprint training because my event, the 1,500, it’s a tricky event,” said Langelaar. “It’s kind of a sprint, but you still need some long-distance endurance to complete the race strong. And so after training with the long distance group for the last six, seven years, I thought I kind of needed a switch.”

Dutton sensed Langelaar’s frustration.

“I would say most of what he was lacking was just motivation and enjoyment in what he was doing — so much so he was finding it hard to do the training,” said Dutton, a national team assistant coach in 2023. “And it was just tough to watch, right? He’s a talented athlete. He’s more of a competitor. He’s a guy that needs to be in a good head space so he can really show up for the competition.”

Langelaar is now the lone Manitoban on the national senior team after the retirement of Heather (McLean) Carruthers.

The squad departs Saturday for the ISU Four Continents Speed Skating Championships in Hachinohe City, Japan, slated for Nov. 15-17.

The fall circuit’s first World Cup races are the following week in Nagano before moving on to Beijing.

“He feels that he’s more of an explosive athlete, which I agree with,” said Dutton. “The testing shows that he’s got a little more fast twitch than some of our other conventional 1,500-metre guys, but he still has really good ability to maintain his his form at the end of the 1,500.”

Langelaar was third in the 1,500 metres at nationals, behind national team veterans Connor Howe of Canmore, Alta., and David La Rue of Longueuil, Que., respectively. It was Langelaar’s first time on the podium at nationals in two years.

“With a small victory at nationals this year and seeing myself step back on the podium and hopefully starting to progress again in the sport, it gives me a lot of confidence going forward,” said Langelaar. “I’m realizing that, ‘OK, I could just be hitting my prime, so let’s see where I can take it.’ ”

Langelaar hopes to add the 1,000-metre race to his repertoire during the winter World Cup circuit in Europe. He is not currently in the pool of skaters being used in the team pursuit.

“We’re going in a positive direction,” said Dutton. “He’s closing the gap on some of his other competitors and I do think that he surprised some of the other people on the ice, which was fun for him. He just skated very well and I saw in him something that I hadn’t seen in a while. There was no doubt in my mind that he was gonna be successful in that race.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca