CANADA’S BEST OLYMPIC SPORT
Girard thrilled to bring in short track’s 31st medal
PYEONGCHANG The gimmick is long gone.
Short track speedskating is no longer cute or funny or quirky or the sporting punchline it used to be. That may have been our first impression or our first glance.
But what it has grown into, now in this its eighth Olympics, in a place where it is, in fact, mainstream and popular, is Canada’s most dependable Winter Olympic performer.
The sport most likely to produce medals. The sport we should be paying more attention to, caring more about, celebrating more often.
Consider these facts: From the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch Partenkirchen — a place that always sounds better coming out of Brian Williams’s mouth — to the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo in what used to be Yugoslavia, Canada as a nation won a total of 29 medals. Twenty-nine?
In the eight Games in which short track has been a recognized Olympic sport, starting in 1992 in Albertville, France, the speedskaters alone have won 31 medals, and there are opportunities to increase that number in the final week of these Games.
In other words, short track by itself, as a sport, has outperformed the rest of the Olympic schedule. And that, not necessarily the sport, is an insane number.
“I did not know that,” said Derrick Campbell, head coach of the Canadian team here in South Korea. “I know we’ve had a tradition of excellence that goes back to the ’70s, before short track was an Olympic sport. But I didn’t realize the numbers were anything like that.”
It’s not just numbers, although Canada has never had less than three short track medals in any Olympics. It’s the people. It’s the depth. And it’s basically one province, Quebec, producing world class athletes year after year.
Samuel Girard was 13 years old, living in the tiny town of Ferlandet-Boilleau, Quebec, population 533, a five-hour drive from Montreal, caught up in nationwide excitement of what was then the Vancouver Olympics, when he first thought he wanted to be an Olympian. He couldn’t take his eyes off short-track speedskating and couldn’t take his eyes off Charles Hamelin.
“I wanted to be just like him,” the new gold medal winner said Sunday.
“I remember watching the relay and the excitement of that and I
thought ‘That’s a sport for me.’ ”
One of his first coaches was Marc Gagnon, decorated Olympian, who won his first medal at the age of 19, his first gold at 23. Hamelin, who now trains, befriends and mentors Girard, won his first medal at 21. Girard was 21 when he became Olympic champion in all of the celebration of Saturday night.
The first person he hugged after the gold was Hamelin.
“Last night was my turn,” said Girard. “I was watching Charles eight years ago. I’ve seen film of Marc’s races. Maybe someone was watching last night and eight years from now will say ‘I saw you on TV. It inspired me.’ ”
Gagnon won five Olympic medals, second most in Winter history for Canada. Hamelin has been on the podium four different times. This was Girard’s first.
“Going back to Sylvie Daigle and Nathalie Lambert, we’ve had this tradition,” said Campbell. ” We’ve been able to pass from generation to generation.
“There is a trend here. I don’t think it was part of any plan. To see us go from one to the next one and next one I see them win at around the same ages, that’s just something we have to take pride in.”
“I’m proud to be this guy,” said Girard, “I’m proud to be the next one.” Proud to be here from “my little tiny town” along with parents, family friends, cousins, no small contingent from the Lac Saint-Jean area of northeast Quebec.
This is a single province sport, not dominating the world but coming close. There is Girard’s gold medal here, and the two bronze medals from Kim Boutin, the new wave of Canadian short track arriving early, pushing legends and friends to the side.
“This is just a glimpse of what this country can do,” said Campbell. “Quebec does a very good job at producing short trackers. But imagine if the rest of the country got involved. Imagine the potential?”
And imagine what would happen if, in Campbell’s words, Canadians paid attention to short track more often than “every three years and 11 months. We’ve got a great product. We’ve got an exciting sport. And it’s a great sport live.”
Speedskating made its Olympic debut in 1924: It represents the most medals Canada has won from any Winter sport, 37, that’s 10 more than figure skating.
Samuel Girard’s medal was the 31st for short track. It’s our game now, and aside from hockey and curling, the usual sure-thing medals, it’s become our best chance.
Just before the race (Charles Hamelin) said to me, ‘Let’s go, you can do this.’ He gave me a tap on the back. We train together, all the team was behind me on this medal. He would have loved to have this medal here, but he’s happy that I’m the one who has it. It was a nice moment. It’s a bit of passing the torch ...
SAMUEL GIRARD