McGregor clan makes a mark in Milan

MILAN — Mark McGregor was never one to stand still. Not when he captained the University of Manitoba Bisons hockey team in the early 1980s. Not during a lengthy coaching career in Europe. And certainly not while roaming the bench for Team Canada at the Spengler Cup in 2001 and 2002.

So it shouldn’t be a surprise that as his daughter, Kaitlyn, approached the starting line on Monday night inside the Milano Speed Skating Stadium, Dad was on the move.

Some things never change.

“I’m still that hockey coach. I can’t sit. So I always go by one of the exits when Kait races. and then I’m up against the glass, yelling and cheering with my hockey voice,” he told the Free Press with a laugh.

There’s been plenty to cheer for over the last few days. Kaitlyn — born in Switzerland while Mark was coaching, but also a dual Canadian citizen with deep Manitoba roots — made her Olympic debut on Saturday, finishing 11th out of 20 in the women’s 3,000 metres, an event she considers her weakest of the four she’ll race.

On Monday night, she placed 17th out of 30 in the women’s 1,000 metres, her second-weakest discipline

“Her goal was to race the best she could race, and she certainly did,” said her mother, Faye, who is originally from Austin.

Mark is from MacGregor, and that’s where the family would spend the summers after Kaitlyn was born. Eventually, they settled full-time in Switzerland, but there is still plenty of kin back in Manitoba. Several of them have made the trip to Italy.

“My favourite moment is looking up before the race to find them (in the stands). It makes my heart sing.”

“My favourite moment is looking up before the race to find them (in the stands). It makes my heart sing,” said Kaitlyn.

Success can take many forms, and she considers her first two races exactly that. Competing against the top skaters in the world, she exceeded expectations in her two weakest events. But the pursuit of perfection continues.

“Immediately after I finished (Monday) I knew I made a few little mistakes,” she said. The big one was not securely locking her hands behind her back at one point, which can cost precious milliseconds and ultimately prove costly.

Unlike her husband, Faye was calm throughout the race, a product of meditation and breathing exercises. But her heart raced a little when, after the first 10 skaters, Kaitlyn sat second overall.

The finish proved dramatic. Netherlands’ Femke Kok, skating in the second-to-last pairing, set a new Olympic record at 1:12.59. But in the final group moments later, compatriot Jutta Leerdam posted 1:12.31 to claim gold and push Kok to silver. Japan’s Miho Takagi took bronze. Quebec’s Béatrice Lamarche narrowly missed a medal, finishing fifth.

The two other Canadians in the race, Carolina Hiller-Donnelly of Prince George, B.C., and Rose Laliberté-Roy from Lévis, Que., finished 26th and 27th, respectively.

More emotion awaits the McGregors as Kaitlyn prepares for the 1,500 metres — her strongest event — and the mass start next week.

“You never know, she could surprise,” said Mark. “Any given day.”

Regardless of results, Kaitlyn, 31, has already achieved a major victory. She took up speed skating at age 12, after her grandmother in Manitoba sent press clippings about Winnipeg’s Cindy Klassen, who had won five medals at the 2006 Turin Olympics. Kaitlyn nearly quit after her first session, but her dad encouraged her to try again.

“She always played (hockey) with the boys and had this long stride skating on the ice. I really felt she’d be really good at speedskating,” said Mark. “And she ended up loving it. She really gets into a flow when skating.”

However, Kaitlyn walked away from the sport for seven years after just missing out on qualifying for the 2014 Sochi Games, joining Mark in his leadership training company. She was really good at that, too — and continues to do some work in the field, including an upcoming TED Talk in Berlin.

“She connects to the young people, especially. Emotionally. She shares her own story of mental health, struggling with self-esteem like every young person does, and it connects,” said Mark.

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But a funny thing happened on the way to athletic retirement, and the competitive fire began to burn coming out of the global pandemic. Kaitlyn decided to give it one final chance.

Five years later, here she is.

Mark remembers a Lance Armstrong poster that used to hang on Kaitlyn’s door with a simple but powerful message: “Remember, a little progress is still progress.”

“A special moment. Emotional,” he said of seeing his daughter hit the ice for the first race on Saturday. “Her story is one of resilience. I’m so impressed at her ability to make this big jump. To see her at her first Olympics, this was her dream. I’ve always seen it, that she could be here. It just took a little bit longer.”

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Mike McIntyre
Reporter

Mike McIntyre is a sports reporter whose primary role is covering the Winnipeg Jets. After graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College in 1995, he spent two years gaining experience at the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 1997, where he served on the crime and justice beat until 2016. Read more about Mike.

Every piece of reporting Mike produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.