‘We’ve shown the world’
Bronze-medal relayers pleased with podium trip
GANGNEUNG, SOUTH KOREA It wasn’t alchemy that turned relay gold into bronze right before Samuel Girard’s eyes.
It was short-track luck, and the Canadian men’s team will live with it, quite happily. They were two quick laps from gold at the end of a marathon skate, but know they could have wound up with nothing, given the elevated chaos that relay exchanges bring to an already crazy sport, and the vulnerable position in which Girard found himself.
The South Koreans fell midway through the race, leaving the medals to be sorted by China, Canada and Hungary. On the second-last lap, Girard said one of the Korean skaters cut in the middle for an exchange and collided with him, sapping all his speed immediately before he was to get the final push from Charles Hamelin.
“I was going on the track to take my last exchange, so I lost all my speed and I tried to have the best exchange I could with Charles,” Girard said. “He pushed me a lot, I tried to block and I tried to just stay in first, but lost too much speed.”
Girard was late getting to the exchange zone, so Hamelin briefly thought he’d have to finish the race himself. Not ideal, given how tough it would be on his legs. In the team rotation, he does 12 laps, Girard 12.5, Charle Cournoyer 10 and Pascal Dion 10.5. Changing it up to have Hamelin finish is “not a good option,” Cournoyer said with a laugh. So Hamelin tried to push Girard onward.
“My right arm slipped on him,” Hamelin said. “I tried to push him with my left, but he had almost no speed when he got on the track and I was not able to give him any, almost any.”
Girard almost immediately lost a spot to the Chinese on the second last lap and then the Hungarians flew past him on the final corner. Bronze from gold just like that.
“The thing is, yeah, it’s the bronze. We could have won the gold, but overall we’ve worked so hard for this,” said Cournoyer.
“We were, I think, today, the team to beat on the ice. We’ve shown the world we were the best team on the ice — two laps to go we were in front and we were rocking it.”
It’s a fifth Olympic medal and a nice parting gift for Hamelin, who will retire later this season, following the world championships in Montreal.
“I think what we can remember is that we give everything we’ve got to have the gold,” said Hamelin. “We leave everything on the ice to make it happen and at that point, when you have that feeling and you know that short track is a sport that can be cruel, the hit in the middle, it’s unpredictable, but it happens and just being on the podium is a beauty for us.”