GUIDING PRESENCE

St-Gelais may not have won, but she leaves lasting mark on short-track team, writes

Marianne St-Gelais did not win anything here, beyond more admiration and respect from her teammates, in particular rising short-track superstar Kim Boutin.

That’s worth something. The impact St-Gelais has had on the younger women under her wing cannot be discounted as one of the prime reasons Boutin won a third medal Thursday. It was a sparkling silver in the women’s 1,000 metres, a lovely accompaniment to a pair of bronze from the 500 and 1,500.

St-Gelais roomed with the youngster here, sheltered her from the social-media firestorm created when Boutin and Korean star Minjeong Choi bumped in the 500-metre final and guided her through the Olympic circus.

Boutin owes her and knows it. “She had a really beautiful career and she’s always there, every time I win a medal, every time I (did) not. And she needs to be proud of who she is right now, how she improved a lot. Not at sport, but in her life, too,” Boutin said.

“And she was a really a good inspiration for me since I’m young. And to have her beside me in my first Olympics … it helps me to take a breath and just enjoy the moment.”

There was a moment Boutin would like to relive, one that St-Gelais couldn’t prevent or predict, one that wasn’t at all enjoyable. It tarnished Boutin’s appearance at the Games, essentially took a medal out of the hands of St-Gelais and other members of the women’s relay team.

“It was a pretty sad disqualification,” said Boutin, who was not actively skating in the race, but veered accidentally onto the track and impeded a Chinese skater at the finish. “I feel I was really sad because I feel it’s my fault that we didn’t have a medal. And I was sad for my teammates because they really deserved it and I feel I won some medals and I think I took this from them, so I’m really sad about this.”

But theirs is a forgiving family and nobody hung any guilt on Boutin nor was she wallowing too long. They are all taught to move onto the next race as soon as possible. Boutin in particular had to work on a mental approach that would increase her endurance in a long meet like this one. It paid off handsomely. She was their most consistent performer, their only female medal winner.

When two Korean skaters wound up in the mats on the final lap of the 1,000 metres Thursday, Boutin was guaranteed a silver. She may well have won it anyway as the Koreans were jostling one another at the back of the pack and she was in good shape. But it took the pressure off and she hit the line comfortably in second to surprise winner Suzanne Schulting of the Netherlands and ahead of Italian legend Arianna Fontana.

“I feel I was in a pretty good position and I had a lot of energy at the end and I protected my second place,” said Boutin.

She can perhaps stuff all three medals in her pocket as she carries the Canadian flag into the closing ceremony Sunday to finish her Olympic debut in style. She’s a contender, but there are others.

In short, Boutin had the meet that St- Gelais wanted. But short track is a sport that you must love despite its capacity to break your heart.

This third and final Olympics would have been sweeter with a podium appearance to augment the three silvers from Vancouver and Turin. And St-Gelais really needed something good to happen at these Games to wipe away the disappointments of finishing 28th, 22nd and seventh in her individual races in Sochi. But she was penalized in her first two races and eliminated early in the 1,000 Thursday.

“It’s a disappointment, for sure, about not only my race, but about all the Games themselves. They didn’t go the way I wanted. The whole Games,” St-Gelais said. “I feel like I was ready for those Games. I was ready mentally, physically and tactically, every aspect. But short track is short track. So yeah, I’m disappointed in my race and the way the Games went.”

Instead, she has to settle for achieving her secondary goal, one that can be measured in Boutin’s results.

“I was like, if I can bring something to her, I’m going to do it for sure,” said St- Gelais.