Future is now!
Budding Canadian short-track star Kim Boutin wins bronze in 500 metres
GANGNEUNG — Kim Boutin just nailed the success part of successor.
The heir apparent to Canada’s reigning and soonto-be retired short track queen Marianne St-Gelais now has the Olympic medal to prove herself ready, and it came wrapped in trademark short-track drama.
A last-lap tussle with the Korean race favourite Minjeong Choi in the 500metre final left Boutin fourth across the finish line, albeit temporarily and unofficially. And as it is w ith so many short track results, the referee was steeling himself to play a crucial role in front of the video replay machine.
With a boisterous home country crowd on the edge of their seats. With the fate of the Korean favourite in his hands. Not for the feint of heart.
Minutes passed. It was an excruciating delay for everyone but Arianna Fontana, the Italian legend who crossed the line first, an eyeblink ahead of the Korean, and was pretty certain the gold was hers. She was wrapped in her country’s flag and crying, but they were tears of joy.
Finally, with St-Gelais and Boutin side-by-side, the official placements were flashed on the big screen at Gangneung Ice Arena. St-Gelais and Boutin burst into massive grins and embraced one another. The Korean was disqualified for impeding Boutin.
Fontana was golden, Yara van Kerkhof of The Netherlands took silver. Bronze was Boutin’s, the moment was theirs, mentor and protégé.
“She’s my inspiration,” Boutin said of St-Gelais. “I think it takes a lot for her to be there and to celebrate with me the medal, because I know she also really wanted this medal and she really deserved the gold medal.”
You don’t get what you deserve in short track every night. St-Gelais was involved in a first-corner scrape with van Kerkhof in the first heat of the night, and it didn’t go well. St-Gelais was disqualified. Confused. Disappointed. Crushed.
“I’m not happy with the decision,” she said after her race, but before Boutin made it on to the podium. “I don’t think I deserved it. I was ahead of the girl, she fell and I’ve been called. We never saw that in short track before. Starts are always aggressive. Starts are always like that. Everybody wants to be in the top two. But for some reason I’ve been called on that.
“Everything happens so fast, but I never expected that. Usually when somebody (falls), they just redo the start and everybody (gets) another chance. There’s nothing we can do about it.”
The Canadians all agreed it was an odd decision not to simply restart the race, but there was no avenue of appeal. As the competition wore on, St-Gelais sat with her family in the stands and had a good cry. But by the time Boutin was set for the final, St-Gelais was back on the sidelines, cheering her on to the ice. That’s leadership.
And there has been a bit of synchronicity at play in the fortunes and misfortunes of the Canadians in just the first two days of the Olympic short track meet.
Boutin is to St-Gelais what Samuel Girard is to St-Gelais’ fiancée Charles Hamelin: The next wave, the future of short track speed skating in Canada. While Hamelin was penalized out of the picture in the 1,500 metres to kick off the Olympic competition, Girard made it to the final and finished fourth. He was ecstatic, and Hamelin took some pride in knowing that he has shepherded the kid to the cusp of success.
And then on Tuesday, Boutin succeeded where her mentor did not. St-Gelais was also as proud as could be and had in fact happily foreshadowed Boutin’s medal-winning performance in the wake of her own disappointing finish.
“Well, she needs me, but not really. I’ve been, not her mentor, but a little bit, when she has questions, when she wants to know something, be sure about something, she’s coming to me.
“But honestly, she sometimes already knows the answer. She knows everything. I’m just there to make sure everything is fine, everything is looking good. But honestly, she knows what to do. She already has all the tools she needs to be on the podium.”
Boutin will have to take St-Gelais’ role between the end of these Games and the start of the next Olympics in Beijing in 2022. She’s ready.
“Of course I’m going to miss her. I really like the energy that she has for the team. For me, it’s an inspiration, and I hope I’m going to be the same for young ladies now.”