Speedskater, Bloemen, golden for Canada
Figure skater, Chan, doesn’t fare as well, falls in short program and sitting in 6th place
PYEONGCHANG, Korea, Republic Of — Canadian figure skater Patrick Chan stumbled on his triple Axel in the men’s short program Thursday night at the Winter Olympics, leaving him in sixth place ahead of today’s free skate.
The three-time world champion from Toronto scored 90.01 points, which was 21.67 behind first-place skater Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan.
Spain’s Javier Fernandez was second with 107.58 and Japan’s Shoma Uno scored 104.17 for third.
Skating to “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas, the 27-year-old Chan opened with a huge quadruple toe loop, but the fall of his Axel cost him huge points.
“Yeah, I do, I do (hate the triple Axel),” said Chan, who’s competing in his final Olympics. “I’ve been blessed with good skating skills but not good triple Axel skills.”
Keegan Messing of Sherwood Park, Alta., was 10th after the short program with 85.11 points.
Chan helped Canada win gold in the team event earlier in the Games, finally reaching the top step of the Olympic podium.
Canadian snowboarder Meryeta O’Dine was forced to withdraw from Thursday’s snowboardcross event after suffering a concussion in training earlier this week.
The Prince George racer was disappointed but the decision was made for her health.
“As an athlete, you always want to push your limits, but it’s important to stop when you have to,” O’Dine said. “I am proud to have travelled here.”
No Canadians advanced to the snowboardcross big final. Tess Critchlow of Kelowna finished ninth.
Dustin Cook of Lac-Sainte-Marie, Que., was the top Canadian in the men’s alpine super-G with a ninth-place time of one minute 25.23 seconds. Matthias Mayer of Austria won the race.
Manuel Osborne-Paradis of Invermere was 22nd, Broderick Thompson of Whistler was 23rd and Toronto’s Jack Crawford skied off course early and didn’t finish.
Earlier Thursday, Calgary speedskater TedJan Bloemen dominated the competition in the men’s 10,000 metres and won the gold medal in an Olympic-record time.
After settling for silver in the men’s 5,000 metres, Bloemen lamented that he didn’t have more in the tank to challenge Dutch great Sven Kramer for gold.
His tank was full of high-grade octane on Thursday.
Skating with confidence and consistency in the second-last pair, Bloemen laid down a time of 12 minutes, 39.77 seconds. It was a mark not even Kramer, one of the greatest speedskaters of all time, could match.
Perhaps daunted by the high bar set by Bloemen, Kramer flagged during his skate and finished a shocking sixth.
Bloemen’s camp was so sure of victory that coach Bart Schouten gave the eventual Olympic champion a victory hug while Kramer still had 2,000 metres to skate.
Bloemen’s gold was part of a banner day for Canada’s Olympians that saw the luge relay team of Alex Gough, Sam Edney, Tristan Walker and Justin Snith win silver and pairs figure skaters Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford take bronze.
Meanwhile, Canada’s women’s hockey team finished the round-robin undefeated with a 2-1 win over archrival United States. And the men opened with a convincing 5-1 win over Switzerland.
Canada sat third in the overall medal standings after six days of competition with 13 medals (four gold, five silver, four bronze). Norway leads with 17 medals, followed by Germany with 15.
Canada’s four gold medals are fifth behind Germany (9), Norway (6), the Netherlands (5) and the United States (5).
The 31-year-old Bloemen, who moved from the Netherlands to Calgary four years ago to compete for Canada, added the Olympic record to his world record in the gruelling 10,000-metre distance.
“I always felt from deep inside that I was able to do something special on the ice, but I was never able to show it. I had to find a different way to do it because I found I hit a wall in my career,” Bloemen said on his move to Canada.
“I found that different way and got way more than I ever would have hoped.”
Dutchman Jorrit Bergsma, the 2014 victor in the 10k, was second and briefly held the Olympic record with a time of 12:41.98 until Bloemen erased it in the next pairing. Italy’s Nicola Tumolero took the bronze. Toronto’s Jordan Belchos finished fifth with a career-best time of 12:59.51.
Bloemen’s father Gerhard-Jan was born in Bathurst, N.B., and lived in Canada for seven years before his family returned to the Netherlands.
Since arriving in Calgary in the spring of 2014, Bloemen has obtained his Canadian citizenship and married his Dutch wife Marlinde in a ceremony in Calgary.
In men’s hockey, Canada found its offence early as Rene Bourque and Wojtek Wolski each scored twice in a workmanlike win over the Swiss.
Maxim Noreau had a goal and an assist for the Canadians, while goaltender Ben Scrivens made 28 saves.
“The team played well,” Scrivens said. “We’ve been here for a week now. I think everyone was excited to get going. I thought we executed, stuck together.”
Elsewhere, Canada earned its second Olympic luge medal in dramatic fashion as the relay team raced to a time of two minutes 24.872 seconds. The powerhouse Germans won gold in 2:24.517, while Austria took bronze in 2:24.988.
The Canadians mobbed Walker and Snith after their doubles run put Canada atop the standings with just the Austrians and Germans to go. The medal was redemption for the Canadian team, which finished fourth in the relay when it made its Olympic debut four years ago.