THE KISS: ACT II

It was the kiss of the 2010 Olympics, making Canadian shorttrack skaters Charles Hamelin and Marianne St-Gelais famous the world-over. Call this The Kiss, Act II. The skaters were at it again Monday in Sochi, embracing rinkside after Hamelin’s win in the men’s 1,500-metre race. Speaking earlier about the The Kiss, Act I — following Hamelin’s win over 500 metres at Vancouver’s Pacific Coliseum four years ago — Hamelin said the revival wasn’t planned.

“We didn’t plan to redo what we did in Vancouver with a kiss on the boards because we didn’t know what to expect from the Russian rules and if she’d be able to get down,” Hamelin said.

But she did, and when Hamelin saw she was rinkside, he went right to her.

Hamelin, 29, and St-Gelais, 23, have been together for more than six years, first meeting at the rink. St-Gelais said she can’t imagine life without him.

“He was there my first step on the national team when I was 17 years old and I need him. Honestly, I can’t imagine not being with Charles around me at competition and training,” she said. “Yes, we’re always together and that sounds scary maybe for some people, but I need him. I need him everywhere and I need him with me all the time. And he helps me. We know the same things. We have the same feelings, the same fears, we have the same emotion in skating, so I need him and Charles is a good man, he’s a good skater, he has a lot of experience, so he could teach me a lot of things.”