Hamelin hopes he’s back in fast lane
Canadian short-track legend got needed lift at recent Olympic test event after dismal start
At 32, Charles Hamelin is the reigning world champion in the 1,000 metres and a fourtime Olympic medallist in shorttrack speedskating.
He will retire at some point as a legend in his sport.
But time eventually catches up with even the best of them. In football, receivers lose a step — sometimes in mid-season — and can no longer outrun cornerbacks fresh out of college. In hockey, star forwards suddenly find themselves losing puck battles they once owned.
In short-track speedskating, the name of the game is crossing the line before anyone else. And for the first time in recent memory Hamelin found himself in a trail position — or disqualified or on his butt — at the first three World Cup events of the 2016-17 season.
Struggling to adjust to equipment changes — but still putting up great numbers in practice — he claimed a lone individual bronze in the 500 metres in Salt Lake City.
Finally, at a 2018 Winter Olympics test event in South Korea on Dec. 18, Hamelin struck gold in the 1,000 metres. Sweet relief. “I needed that,” Hamelin told Postmedia this week from Montreal. “My confidence in my skating was not super high before that. To get back on the podium and win a distance at the World Cup meant a lot to me. “My confidence on the ice is back.” Traditionally, Hamelin is so dominant that he makes headlines when he doesn’t win races. Excellence for the Sainte-Julie, Que. product has been a given for the last decade.
So Hamelin said he felt tormented this fall by the sudden lack of results. Channelling his inner hockey player, he even turned superstitious and changed up his off-ice routine in hopes of igniting a winning streak.
Usually, Hamelin plays the video game Gummy Drop! on his smartphone to unwind, but switched to Plants vs. Zombies and Dofus. The early returns are encouraging. “I just feel really, really good,” Hamelin said as he prepared for the Canadian championships this weekend in Montreal. “Doubt had just become a normal thing for me. In almost every distance before I got to Korea, it was a fall for me — a DQ or a fall.
“That wasn’t a super great feeling for me.”
His fiancée, fellow speedskater Marianne St-Gelais, watched helplessly as a brooding Hamelin battled through his first extended slump on the World Cup tour.
“He was doing great in training and everything was fine,” St-Gelais said. “I was like, ‘OK, is this something bugging him from the inside? Is it something at home?’ I didn’t know what to say or what to do.
“He was having a tough time with his equipment at the start of the season. Maybe he was thinking too much. But he was still strong. He was still the best.”
Through it all, Hamelin dominated in practice. The troubles came in competition.
“We don’t see him slowing down,” said coach Derrick Campbell. “We see in training and testing with all the physical parameters we measure, everything is improving. Even at his age, he is improving.
“The sport is evolving and other skaters and other countries are improving as well. It’s a question of staying ahead of the pack.”
Racing every day in practice against skaters 10 years his junior, Hamelin is determined stay ahead of the pack — and Father Time.
He has yet to decide when he will retire, but concedes the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang are likely his last.
And with his confidence back, he’s determined to add to his medal collection in March at the world championships in Rotterdam.
“The thing is, he’s never had that kind of struggle before,” St-Gelais said. “And now it happened near the end of his career. So I feel like he was maybe questioning himself too much. But boom, he won the 1,000 and then he was OK.”
Hamelin indeed considers the gold in South Korea a reboot and a clean start.
“I was able to really erase everything from my mind and race and be like the Charles Hamelin I was before,” he said. “I’m just looking forward to being better and better through the rest of the season.”