Short-track future is in good hands of Girard, Boutin
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — The torch has been passed. As Charles Hamelin and Marianne St-Gelais wrap up their Olympic careers at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games, they can rest assured Canada’s successful short-track speedskating program is in good hands with rising stars Samuel Girard and Kim Boutin taking over.
The youth movement continued Saturday. Girard raced to gold in the men’s 1,000 metres — the only Olympic short-track event in which Hamelin doesn’t own a medal — while Boutin earned her second bronze of the Games in the women’s 1,500.
Hamelin and St-Gelais, competing in their last Olympics, didn’t figure into Saturday’s medal races. St-Gelais was eliminated in her 1,500 semifinal after incurring a penalty in a second straight race, while Hamelin’s disqualification in the 1,000 semi actually advanced Girard into the final.
While the lack of individual results so far in Pyeongchang is disappointing for Hamelin, a three-time Olympic champion and four-time medallist who had set an Olympic record in 1,000 qualifying, and St-Gelais, who owns three Olympic silver medals, Canada’s first couple of short track has shown genuine enthusiasm for their medalwinning teammates, who are both Olympic debutantes.
St-Gelais, who has described herself as a “mother figure” to Boutin, gave the 23-year-old from Sherbrooke, Que., a joyful hug after her second straight thirdplace finish. After his win, Girard leapt into the pads surrounding the rink at the Gangneung Ice Arena, where Hamelin was waiting to give the 21-year-old from Ferland-et-Boilleau, Que., a playful slap on the helmet.
“Just before the race [Hamelin] said to me: ‘Let’s go, you can do this,’ ” Girard said. “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,” Girard added. “It was a nice moment. It’s a bit of passing the torch, it’s a bit of that image.”
Canada’s short-track medals on Day 8 of competition put the nation back on track after a lacklustre seventh day, where Canadian athletes were kept off the podium and the news was dominated by curler Rachel Homan’s controversial loss to Denmark.
Homan’s team rebounded Saturday to pick up its first win of the Games with an 11-3 rout of the United States.
Also Saturday, figure skating star Patrick Chan finished ninth in his Olympic swan song, Canada’s men’s hockey team lost a thriller against the Czech Republic, 3-2 in a shootout, and Kevin Koe’s curling team lost for the first time in Pyeongchang when it was defeated 5-2 by Sweden.
At the halfway point of the Games, Canada sat third in the overall medal standings with 15, five of each colour. Norway led with 22, followed by Germany with 17.
Germany led all nations with nine gold medals, followed by Norway (7), the Netherlands (6) and Canada and the United States (5).
As is often the case with shorttrack speedskating, the men’s 1,000 final was a chaotic affair with the three competitors behind Girard and silver medallist John-Henry Krueger of the United States falling to the ice in a tangle.
Girard, who won in a time of one minute 24.65 seconds, skated at the front early in the race, a strategy that can have its risks but proved prudent on Saturday as it allowed him to avoid the crash.
“I don’t want to be there when those things happen,” Girard said. “So I really want to be in the front. That was my plan and I executed pretty well.”
Seo Yira of South Korea emerged from the pileup to take bronze.
Boutin came out of a crowded field of seven competitors in the women’s 1,500 final to take her second bronze in 2:25.834. South Korea’s Choi Minjeong won gold and China’s Li Jinyu skated to silver.
Boutin was subjected to hundreds of threatening social media messages after winning her 500-metre bronze and had to set her online accounts to private. She originally finished fourth in the race, but was promoted to third when Choi was disqualified for interfering with the Canadian.
Canadian freestyle skier Alex Beaulieu-Marchand won a bronze medal in men’s slopestyle. The skier from Quebec City scored 92.40 on his second run.
Norway’s Oystein Braaten won gold with a 95.00 on his first run.
American Nick Goepper finished second after scoring 93.60 in his final run to bump Beaulieu-Marchand out of the silver-medal position.
In slopestyle, each skier has three runs down a course featuring rails and jumps. Their best score counts.
Teal Harle of Campbell River had 90.00 points in his final run, good for fifth. Evan McEachran of Oakville, Ont., scored 89.40 points to finish sixth.