Dramatic last-lap crash gives Canada its golden moment in women’s team pursuit speedskating

Opinion

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This article was published 15/02/2022 (1301 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BEIJING Isabelle Weidemann was skating hard but easy, bigger than everyone, shielding her two teammates, pulling them along. Behind her Valerie Maltais and Ivanie Blondin kept up, pushing Weidemann when possible, physically pushing her, and pushing Japan. The Japanese were the world-record holders, the class of the sport. Canada had been trying to catch them all week, and for years.

“There was obviously a lot of pressure on them,” said Team Canada coach Remmelt Eldering. “Because we were coming, you know?”

There are 12 splits in the women’s long-track team pursuit, over 2,400 hard metres. As they have since last year, Canada sent Maltais to lead for the first 600 metres, and then switched to Blondin for 600 more. And then it was Izzy to pull them home for the back half, Izzy who already had two medals in these Games, Izzy the giant.

The deficit had peaked at 1:05 seconds early on, and Blondin’s stretch had pulled it back to 0.58, but they lost time in the transition and it was 0.88 when Weidemann took over. Japan had already set an Olympic record at these Games. Canada had posted a number that was only 0.36 behind. They tried to put up a number in every round, so Japan would have to think about it here.

Izzy got out front … 0.65 seconds back … 0.39. Going into the final 200 metres it was 0.32. That was probably too much. But it was going to be tight, because there is nobody in women’s skating who provides a draft like the six-foot-two Weidemann. As Eldering puts it, “Izzy needs to deliver more energy because she takes all that wind, but the other girls have a good draft, so they can also push it a little bit better, have a little bit more energy, so they don’t fall at the end of the race. Izzy catches all the wind. She’s very strong and successful.”

Japan is Nana Takagi, her sister Miho and Ayano Sato, and they had set three world records in the past five years. Miho already had two silvers here in the 500 and 1,500, and Nana won gold in Pyeongchang in the mass start, and other than a fall in Salt Lake City last year they are a study in near perfection. They move in concert from the very start to the very end. Canada started out with three sprinting skaters; Japan started with three moving as one. It’s really beautiful.

But Canada had distance skaters, and Weidemann most of all. In the 3,000, Weidemann got stronger and held on for bronze. After her silver in the 5,000, she said she wanted to skate 10,000 one day, to push her limits. That was the push. The gap was probably too much.

And in the final corner of the race, Nana fell. She just lost her balance the way you might on a patch of ice on a sidewalk and slid into the wall. It was a shock. Canada thought they could catch them. But not like this.

“We were all going into the blackout zone,” said Weidemann, 26, from Ottawa. “We were just going to cross the line having spent it all.”

And then they crossed the line in Olympic-record time of 2:53.44 and tried not to cry, and Nana wept trackside and was enveloped in great hugs by the Japanese team, and when they all stood on the podium Weidemann was a head taller than everyone, towering.

No Canadian had ever won gold, silver and bronze in a single Winter Games. She’s the first.

“How many times I heard her like saying, back to the drawing board, and trying to make the perfect race,” said Maltais, looking up at Weidemann. “And I think executing the race, the performance that you want at the Games when everything is on the line, I think it proves a lot and proves a lot to yourself.” Weidemann almost blushed.

This was a long time in the making. A team with Weidemann and Blondin finished fourth in Pyeongchang, and Weidemann said it stuck with her longer than it should have, and she pushed and pushed and pushed herself until the pandemic made her realize she was burning herself out. She’s happier now.

“It’s made me able to give this team so much more,” said Weidemann,

“Izzy is a little bit more reserved; like, it takes a little bit more to ask her how she feels,” said Maltais. “And I feel that within those four years we learned to trust each other, and to know our feelings.”

When Canada lost to the Netherlands in the final at the world championships by 0.17 seconds, they beat themselves up for the mistake. Weidemann made a promise.

“We were really struggling,” said Weidemann. “We messed up and we came second, and I think we panicked a little bit. And I wanted to make sure that we didn’t forget that moment.

“I had this golden yellow construction paper for some reason in the Netherlands, so I made these little golden tickets and I slid them under the girls’ door, and I think we each put them in our wallets.”

“It expired today,” said Maltais.

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Maltais, from La Baie, Que., was a short-track speedskater who had a silver from Pyeongchang and switched sports; she is only the third athlete to win an Olympic medal in both disciplines. She and Blondin, from Ottawa, competed in short-track when they were younger. Weidemann dwarfs every skater on the track, and she is now a star.

It was Canada’s first women’s long-track medal since 2010. She might carry the flag, before these Games are over.

“I just think about all the hard work that we’ve put in, the three of us, over the past four years,” said Weidemann. “And you know, that our coaches put into it, and the rest of our team, all of our family and our friends that have supported us and made sure that we got here. Just, you know, to the line today. And it means so much to me to be able to bring them home something. Something to thank them.”

She has a lot to pack.

Bruce Arthur is a Toronto-based columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @bruce_arthur