‘THAT’S SHORT TRACK’
Crash ends Canadian medal streak in women’s 3,000-metre relay
“I chose short track for the good and the bad sides, and . . . I’ve been having a little bad side.” MARIANNE ST-GELAIS AFTER PENALTIES IN THREE RACES
PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA— It can be tempting to say congratulations on your silver medal in roulette, but that’s short track. On Tuesday night Canada was running a great relay race. They were right there.
And then someone tripped, and it all went to hell. Canada was disqualified from the women’s 3,000metre relay final. South Korea won gold, and the Korean skater who had fallen wept, and could not stop weeping. China, too, was disqualified after finishing second. Italy, wiped out with Canada in the crash, moved to silver. Canada looked up at the scoreboard and thought they had bronze.
No, that went to the Netherlands, who had won the B final in a worldrecord time. Absurd, but that’s short track.
“You know what, I chose short track for the good and the bad sides, and at the Games, well, I’ve been having a little bad side,” said Marianne St-Gelais, who has been penalized in three of her four events here. “But I still enjoy my sport, enjoy short track. The thing is, we were doing an excellent race. We were first. I pushed (Kassandra Bradette) first in my second-last exchange. I was like, ‘Man, I’m ready for the two laps at the end.’ I was like, ‘We have to do it,’ I was ready.
“And that’s the part that’s pissing me off a little bit . . . I’m still hungry. I didn’t fight for my position, I didn’t fight for my medal. (But) I’m still enjoying my sport. That’s short track.”
Canada had indeed skated a wonderful race. Canada had won a medal in this race in every Olympics since it was introduced in 1992. They were there.
St-Gelais, whose marvellous career will end at these Games, was ready. This was her moment. It was their moment.
But Korea’s Kim Alang tripped on an exchange with four laps to go, and Valerie Maltais was right behind her, and Canada and Italy spilled like marbles across the track. They tried to finish the race. With China about to be DQed, a medal was waiting there.
Kim Boutin, who won bronze in the 500 and 1,500 at these Games despite vicious vitriol from Korean fans following a different on-track mess, was in the wrong place. As Korea and China crossed the finish line, Boutin was looking to exchange with a teammate and race, and was too close to the track. Teams had used that technique to interfere with races before. Boutin wasn’t doing that, but that’s the rule. There is no appeals process, not in a final. The medal vanished right there.
“You cannot be there, especially on the last lap of a gold-medal race, you cannot be blocking at all,” said Nathalie Lambert, the chair of the International Skating Union’s Short Track Speed Skating Technical Committee and once one of Canada’s great speed skaters.
“That’s the call. The crash from what I saw is the Korean tipped her blade in the ice and it was just a fall, Canada had nothing to do with it. Until then that was an amazing race and, the best race I’ve seen in a long time.
“I think it’s the first time in Olym- pic race this happened, unfortunately. And I think Kim had no idea, she was looking for her skater and not paying attention to the ones finishing. But she was in the way. There was a lot of confusion. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
The Koreans were stars, the Chinese were devastated, the Italians were thrilled, and the Dutch were over the moon. And the Canadians left empty-handed, because somebody tripped. Canada coach Frederic Blackburn said, “What we saw is, we are on our game. The Koreans are so strong, they won almost all their relays this year, and they were afraid of us. I was proud because my girls weren’t afraid of anyone in that race. That’s the most important thing for me.”
Well, that almost makes it worse. Maybe it should make Canada appreciate the program that has produced so many medals in such a short time. The windows to be brilliant are so narrow; the chances for disaster never go away. Earlier in the evening, Canadian short-track legend Charles Hamelin was disqualified in a 500 heat; it was the last individual race of his Canadian career. He will still race in the men’s 5,000 relay; that is his last chance. On this night, though, something ended.
“It’s a feeling of — I was just sad to not be able to continue, to go to the next round,” he said. “It’s not what I felt I could do. I felt I could do more.”
His races are nearly done. Maybe they win a medal; maybe they crash. That’s short track, forever, amen.