Canada has depth to keep icing superior speedskating squads
Looming retirements create leadership void, but plenty of prospects could step in
There is always somebody on the podium and someone else waiting in the wings. Medal ceremonies inspire new recruits to train harder, medallists retire and the new wave hits the ice, ready to win.
That’s the larger circle of short track speedskating life in this country.
From Marc Gagnon to Francois Louis-Tremblay to Charles Hamelin; from Sylvie Daigle to Nathalie Lambert to Marianne St-Gelais; the enduring depth of Canada’s team is both an ingredient and byproduct of consistently icing medal winners at World Cups, world championships and Olympics.
So, when Hamelin and StGelais skate off into the sunset in 2018 — they have both declared the PyeongChang Games will be their last — it won’t necessarily dim Canada’s podium prospects.
It doesn’t mean the national team is ready to see them go, either. Men’s team head coach Derrick Campbell isn’t sure how you go about replacing an athlete like Hamelin, who combines leadership skills, maturity and a thirst for winning that has been unmatched on the national team for a decade. It will be up to the likes of Samuel Girard, Charle Cournoyer, Pascal Dion and Guillaume Bastille to try.
“I don’t think that we’re ready quite yet,” Campbell said last week, before Olympic trials kicked off Saturday in Montreal. “We’ve got leaders in our group right now who I think will take on that mantle. I think someone like Samuel, he’s got very strong leadership qualities at such a young age.
“But you know, it’s hard to replace someone like Charles. I think that we’ll get there but we need to develop some of the younger skaters that we have in the pipeline right now. The depth, I would say, is very good. It’s as deep as I’ve seen in a long time.
“We feel good about this next crop.”
Girard, 21, has already declared his intention to replicate Hamelin’s longevity.
“I plan to push the Canadian team further for a few years. Normally, speedskaters stop around 25, 26. But I want to prove the long-term career exists and that not only Charles can have a long career.”
It’s a tall order. Hamelin, 33, has four Olympic medals, 26 from world championships. Assuming Girard makes the team for PyeongChang, it will be his first Games.
“Charles’ career is really special,” Campbell said. “You just don’t see that often, especially in our sport. It’s a very demanding sport on the body. Training is very rigorous, physically and mentally. And just to keep that hunger and fire alive for that long is really tough, too.
“Sam is a young man, he’s got all the tools. When we look at his technique; mentally where he’s at; how he performs in competition, his tactical skills, he’s got all the tools to do what Charles has done. That said, not many people have.”
On the women’s side, Kim Boutin and Jamie MacDonald are favourites to make their first Olympic squad, and have learned much from St-Gelais.
“Her work ethic, her competitive mindset, is probably the biggest thing,” MacDonald said. “She goes into every race at Canadian trials and World Cups, she goes into it to win it, not just to have a race. Having that confidence is, I think, what all athletes should strive for.”
Veteran Valerie Maltais is vacillating between hanging them up after 2018 and hanging around, and Kasandra Bradette may also call it quits after 2018.
So women’s team head coach Frederic Blackburn isn’t quite sure what his stable will look like post-PyeongChang, but he knows someone will step up to replace the leadership role assumed by St-Gelais.
“For sure, Val can be a good leader if she keeps going. Kim can be a good leader, too. For me, on the ice, a leader is not always the athlete talking a lot. Sometimes it’s the presence of the athlete on the ice and what they do. It’s tough to say right now who is going to be ready to take that role.”
There are 16 men and 16 women competing in Olympic trials in Montreal through the middle of the month, only five of each gender will go to the Games. Blackburn had been worried about depth, but after seeing his national team group in training, and looking around at new recruits from national training centres, he is more at ease.
“On the women’s side it was tougher to say we are pretty deep. But right now I have more confidence about it. For sure the next cycle will be totally different. There is going to be a lot of new faces on the team, like after Sochi.”