SPEEDSKATERS ON RIGHT TRACK TOWARD BEIJING
Canadian team enjoying World Cup medal haul with new approach
As recruiting tools go, there aren’t many stronger than the podium pictures generated by Canadian speed skaters through November and December.
Take Ivanie Blondin and Isabelle Weidemann, for instance. There they were in early December at a long-track World Cup meet in Kazakhstan, hugging it out after Blondin won the 5,000 metres and Weidemann finished third. Those medals paired nicely with Weidemann’s gold and Blondin’s bronze in the 3,000 metres at the season-opening World Cup in Belarus, as well as Blondin’s gold and Weidemann’s bronze in the 3,000-metres in Japan, during the last stop before the Christmas break.
In fact, through four of six events on the 2019-20 World Cup tour, Canadian long track speed skaters generated 22 medals.
Add the 18 World Cup baubles produced through four events by the short track team, eight from the sensational Kim Boutin alone, and it’s becoming clearer that Canadian speed skaters, led by some strong women, will be a force at the Beijing Olympics in 2022.
“I think that consistency, believing in myself and having the confidence to succeed are what’s leading to my medals right now,” said Blondin, who won seven individual medals and three more from team pursuit. “I’m really happy with the outcome and am just soaking everything in. It’s important to keep a level head and to continue to have fun.”
Major success at the next Olympics would be fun, and would positively affect registration, as impressionable kids are inspired by watching medal-winning performances and the joy they bring. And a bump in registration is certainly on the Speed Skating Canada wish list.
“It’s great when you have three women (in a race) on the international circuit in long track and two of them are on the podium together, hugging each other,” said CEO Susan Auch.
“To me, that is what we need to be showing Canadian families so that they put their kids in sport. Every day you have a kid in sport at any level you build a better foundation for this country.”
If they happen to choose speedskating before hockey or figure skating rather than after they have finished with the most mainstream winter sports pursuits in our country, all the better.
“We get them when they get turned off of either figure skating or hockey and that’s awesome, for sure,” said Auch. “Cindy Klassen came to us that way. We love that. We’re never going to turn them away. It is an option for every kid who has skated to move into speedskating.
“However, I think it would be even better for us if we could get them when they’re entering sport at five and six and they want to learn how to skate. That’s I think what Speed Skating Canada is missing the most. We need the pyramid at the bottom to be bigger. Right now we’re working with what we have and it’s amazing the results Canada gets on the speedskating circuit, but I think we could even have more.”
SSC has already earned a reputation for delivering peak performance when it counts most. The 70 Olympic medals won by short- and long-track athletes tops all sports in the country, winter and summer, and the total will certainly grow in 2022. The likes of Blondin and Weidemann are poised to lead the way.
“They’re good friends, it’s a positive rivalry,” said Auch. “That is how we will encourage our young skaters to get into the sport and behave themselves. That’s ultimately how you want to be in a job when you leave the sport, too. You want to be competing and one-upping, but you don’t want to be knocking down the person beside you to get there. You want to get them to be their best so you can be the best.
“That’s truly what I learned from sport as an athlete, especially when Catriona (Le May Doan) and I were racing with each other. It was not always easy. You’re a little jealous of the person beside you when they’re doing well. You can either turn that into a positive and get better or turn it into a negative and it festers. I look at this organization in the same way.”
Auch, a three-time Olympic speedskating medallist who came on board as president in 2016 and shifted to CEO a year later, was determined to make SSC better. With particular emphasis on the post-pyeongchang 2018 period, she has overseen what she alternately labels a rebuilding or revamping of the entire organization, working in concert with chief sport officer Shawn Holman, who in turn relied on major assistance from Own The Podium staff.
“It takes an inordinate amount of time, passion and energy to change something that is rooted in a lot of tradition,” said OTP’S director of winter sport Patricia Chafe. “Right now we’re seeing the live outcome of them taking the time, putting the energy into that exercise. ”
The rebuild was made necessary in part by the firing of longtrack head coach Mike Crowe. He was placed on leave less than a month before the Pyeongchang Olympics and SSC refused to explain why, citing confidentiality concerns. The Games came and went — Canada won five short-track medals and two in long track — and Crowe was fired at the end of April 2018, again with little or no explanation. SSC said only that coaches and athletes should be allowed to work in an environment of “security, respect and professionalism.”
Given the circumstances, Auch knew the organization had lost the trust of some athletes and had to work hard to rebuild it.
“Absolutely. A change like that is a big change. There wasn’t a lot of information that came out. There were a lot of questions and absolutely the athletes needed to rebuild their trust with the organization. I think Shawn has specifically done a great job with it.”
Holman also gets a nod from Chafe. She said this year’s World Cup results are validation of Holman’s focus on building a formidable coaching staff and ensuring its methods were in line with the organization’s culture.
“We give credit where credit is due and Shawn did a lot of work to make sure he had world-class coaches in the environment. That is absolutely a critical piece. Another critical piece is the work the coaching group did with Shawn collaboratively on what they want this to be every day, that daily culture that you’re living in, because that’s what you train in. That’s where greatness is born, in that daily training environment,” said Chafe.
Weidemann made sure to acknowledge the importance of coach Remmelt Eldering in her early season success.
“These results speak very highly of the team we are training with right now. We have a lot of confidence, a strong training group and a very knowledgeable coach, which are all reflected in today’s medals,” she said after sharing the podium with Blondin in Kazakhstan.
Their group includes Valerie Maltais, who made the switch from short track after Pyeongchang. The short-track team, which is based in Montreal, has moved on from the retirements of Marianne St-gelais, Charle Cournoyer and Sam Girard and is constantly making treks to the podium as well this season.
Boutin, 24, leads the pack. Courtney Sarault and Steven Dubois are enjoying breakout seasons with a couple of medal performances each and the relay teams are chipping in with a podium finish here and there.
“We knew coming out of Pyeongchang we had a ton of young talent,” Auch said of both teams. “So we saw all those glimmers of hope and now they’re starting to perform and it’s early enough that they will get used to that high-level performance.
“If you start to do that only in an Olympic year, the Olympics are a different monster. If you get used to high-level performance, you have an expectation and it is much easier to perform at the Games.”
An organization like Speed Skating Canada, which is in the business of growing its sport and its medal collection, also has to do all it can to ensure an enjoyable experience for all athletes, coaches, volunteers and staff members.
That said, the post-pyeongchang period of rebuilding or revamping as Auch labels it, was an uncomfortable time. Change is like that. But it presented an opportunity for Speed Skating Canada to get better at its core business of sport.
The ice-level goal for Auch and Holman was obvious, but not necessarily within easy reach; a positive and competitive training environment that attracts, produces and sustains healthy, well-balanced and successful athletes. So Auch said they focused on fostering good culture, good behaviour, open communication and transparency at all levels.
It was the big-picture approach. A massive haul of 40 World Cup medals through half a season would suggest they got it right.
It would be even better for us if we could get them when they’re entering sport at five and six ... (That’s) what Speed Skating Canada is missing.