Van Horne sets sights on 2030 French Alps Games

Skylar Van Horne was in the middle of training at the Olympic Oval in Calgary on Monday morning when she and the rest of her teammates stopped in their tracks with intrigue as the TV cut to the women’s 1,000-metre speed skating final in Milan.

One of her favourite Olympic events, the Winnipeg-born speed skater marvelled as a pair of Dutch athletes sped to gold and silver, and Béatrice Lamarche of Quebec City narrowly missed the podium in fifth place, which was the best of three Canadians in the event.

The winner, Jutta Leerdam, set an Olympic record previously held by Japan’s Miho Takagi, who won bronze and happens to be someone Van Horne idolizes.

The 18-year-old Van Horne, who will take a different world stage later this month, couldn’t help but feel inspired after watching her fellow countrywomen and witnessing a piece of sports history.

“It’s definitely really inspiring to watch. I mean, as I’ve gotten older and progressed more in the sport, and gotten to a higher level, I’ve gotten to know some of the Canadian athletes who are representing us in speed skating. So it feels more special watching them now, knowing that I’ve trained with them, I’ve raced against them, and I watched them train all the time and I see all the hard work they put in,” said Van Horne, who will represent Canada at the ISU Junior World Cup Final (Feb. 21-22) and ISU World Junior Speed Skating Championships (Feb. 27 to March 1) in Inzell, Germany.

“It just inspires me to want to be like them one day.”

Van Horne will do her best Takagi impression when she skates in the 1,000m race at the World Cup. It’s her only competition at that event before she takes on a full slate the following week at the World Junior Championships, where she’ll go in the 500m, 1,000m, 1,500m, 3,000m, team sprint and team pursuit.

Van Horne’s selection to the national team comes after finishing second-place overall at the Canadian Junior Long Track Championships in Quebec City last month.

She had performed well at the national championships in past years — silver in 2025 and bronze in 2024 — but this one meant more after she left home for the first time last August to study at the University of Calgary and train full-time at the city’s world-class skating facility.

Van Horned confessed it was a difficult transition, but one that is starting to pay dividends.

“Moving out to Calgary was a big shift for me. I was in a new training group, had a new coach for the first time in a couple of years, and so for me, it was a big jump,” she said.

“I think I felt more proud of my races this year than I did last year at the youth championships, even though I was about the same result. I think I just felt I raced it more to my expectations, my race cues and my technical cues. I felt more proud of my results this year than in the previous couple of years.”

It will be Van Horne’s third go at the World Junior Championships.

The difference this year is that she feels like she’s matured as a skater, especially in 1,000m and 1,500m races, which she maintains are her two most improved distances. She won both events at the Canadian Junior Long Track Championships.

When she’s done in Germany, that will effectively mark an important milestone in Van Horne’s career, as she graduates from the Canadian Junior Team and begins training as a senior athlete.

It will also effectively begin a new Olympic cycle — one that will come with high hopes for the young Manitoban. She projects to be one of the province’s best chances to represent Team Canada on the oval on the women’s side in 2030, and while that is still years away, it’s easy for her mind to wander as she thinks about her bright future.

“I was at the Olympic trials this year. I got to race. I got to see the pressure that is under all the skaters that are competing for spots, and it’s definitely a big deal,” Van Horne said.

“So it was super inspiring to watch and also get to racing myself and just see what the gap is to me as a skater versus the skaters who actually made the Olympics. And so it’s definitely in the back of your mind. You start thinking about, ‘Well, it’s four years. How much can you improve in four years?’ It’s hopefully going to become more of a goal to make the next Olympics, and I’m excited to see what happens in four years.”

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