Anything goes, and Blondin goes down
Canadian crashes in the mayhem of the mass start, misses on last medal chance
PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA— Once upon a time, when short-track speedskating was the deranged arriviste of the Olympics, the rule was there were no rules: anything goes.
But then short track grew up, got regulated down, and just about every race now is riddled with DQs for obstructing this and impeding that. Enter mass-start speedskating. The Olympic parvenu made its Winter Games debut Saturday night — enough of a curiosity draw that the long-track oval was flat-out full, possibly the only occasion over the past fortnight when there have been no empty seats in any of the venues. Ivanka Trump in the stands added a touch of celebrity.
Joey Mantia of the U.S., the reigning world champion in this event, describes mass start as “NASCAR on ice,” with sometimes 24 skaters jostling on a sheet of ice designed to accommodate, at most, six racers in team pursuit, in brackets of three. You see the dilemma. Mantia finished ninth in a predictably unpredictable men’s final.
Canada’s Ivanie Blondin — world champion in 2016, second in 2015 — has said the event is so chaotic, so under-refereed, that only taking her helmet off and clobbering an opponent would likely result in disqualification. She meant it in a good way.
Pushing, pulling, submarining, hand on another racer’s skate — all fine. Maybe ponytail-tugging would be frowned upon.
After finishing sixth, fifth and fourth in her earlier long-track events (the 3,000, the 5,000 and the team pursuit), Blondin, a shorttracker turned long-tracker, was straining at the bit, anxious for a last podium bid at these Games. Guess what happened. Mayhem at the Oval. A spectacular three-woman sprawl.
And while Blondin picked up a single point from the first intermediate sprint, picking herself up and grinding out what remained of the 16-lap race, it was nowhere near enough to advance out of the semifinal.
“I had a little bit of a slip around the apex in that turn,” the 27-year-old from Ottawa said afterwards, downcast and reluctantly coaxed into the mixed zone. “And the Japanese (skater) that was behind me kind of just tossed me out of the way. I ended up falling because I just lost balance. That happens, right? It happens, yeah.”
This is the part where we try to explain how the race works. It’s a combination of short-track and long-track strategy, with three sprint laps, or “preems,” tucked into the 6,400-metre event. First three to finish the race outright earn 60, 40 and 20 points. Top three skaters in the sprint laps are awarded points: 5, 3 and 1. That matters for placement, in advancing out of a semi, or on the World Cup circuit where points are tallied on the season. It means just about sweet-frig-all in an Olympic final.
Blondin didn’t get that far. Tenth in the 12-field semi, disconsolate.
She may also have triggered the wipeout by appearing to step on the inside of the track during the first sprint, causing her to lose balance, a three-way knockout ensuing, bringing down Annouk van der Weijden of the Netherlands and Japan’s Ayano Sato, who injured her elbow and was unable to continue.
“I didn’t think I did. I was obviously tight, but I didn’t think I stepped inside the track whatsoever.” Pause. “But I might have. I have no idea.”
Sato: “As I was trying to get the points, the Canadian athlete lost her balance and fell and the consequence is, I fell with her. I have pain in my elbow and I am really, really disappointed.”
A sour conclusion to Blondin’s Olympics.
“Of course I’m distraught right now. Not being on the podium is disappointing.”
Still, she emphasized the bright side of her Games.
“A lot of people don’t see my results as being positive, which is really unfortunate. Finishing sixth, fifth and fourth, I think, is a great accomplishment. It’s not a medal, but it’s something to be proud of.”
Canada’s Keri Morrison, from Burlington, qualified easily for the final, which unfolded weirdly. Estonia’s Saskia Alusalu was hell-bent on the sprints, winning all of them and opening a wide gap over the pack. Not a chance on Earth she could maintain that pace.
“She’s done it before on the World Cup stage, twice I think,” Morrison said. “It’s nothing new for me or the girls. It was just a matter of reeling her in.”
The pack struck with about three laps to go. “That almost worked for her,” said Morrison, who made no attempt to surge in the sprints. “For me, no. That wasn’t my strategy.”
The victor was Japan’s Nana Takagi, with an explosive rocket-thrust to pass Holland’s Irene Schouten on the inside of the final corner. The Dutchwoman slipped to third behind South Korea’s Kim Bo-Reum.
And, in the last race at the oval of the 2018 Games, it was favourite Lee Seung-Hoon, also of South Korea, blasting past the opposition in the final straightaway of the men’s mass start, punching his fist with delight.
It was the host nation’s fifth gold medal.