The torch has been passed
Rise of Girard, Boutin puts short-track future in good hands
PYEONGCHANG, Korea, Republic Of The torch has been passed. As Charles Hamelin and Marianne StGelais wrap up their Olympic careers at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games, they can rest assured Canada’s successful short-track speedskating program is in good hands with rising stars Samuel Girard and Kim Boutin taking over.
The youth movement continued Saturday. Girard raced to gold in the men’s 1,000 metres — the only Olympic shorttrack event in which Hamelin doesn’t own a medal — while Boutin earned her second bronze in the women’s 1,500.
Hamelin and St-Gelais, competing in their last Olympics, didn’t figure into Saturday’s medal races. St-Gelais was eliminated in her 1,500 semifinal after incurring a penalty in a second straight race, while Hamelin’s disqualification in the 1,000 semi actually advanced Girard into the final.
While the lack of individual results so far in Pyeongchang is disappointing for Hamelin, a three-time Olympic champion and four-time medallist who had set an Olympic record in 1,000 qualifying, and StGelais, who owns three Olympic silver medals, Canada’s first couple of short track has shown genuine enthusiasm for their medal-winning teammates, who are both Olympic debutantes.
St-Gelais, who has described herself as a “mother figure” to Boutin, gave the 23year-old from Sherbrooke Que., a joyful hug after her second straight third-place finish. After his win, Girard leapt into the pads surrounding the rink at the Gangneung Ice Arena, where Hamelin was waiting to give the 21-year-old from Ferland-et-Boilleau, Que., a playful slap on the helmet.
“Just before the race (Hamelin) said to me, ‘Let’s go, you can do this,”’ Girard said. “He gave me a tap on the back. We train together, all the team was behind me on this medal.
“He would have loved to have this medal here, but he’s happy that I’m the one who has it,” Girard added. “It was a nice moment. It’s a bit of passing the torch, it’s a bit of that image.”
Canada’s short-track medals on Day 8 of competition put the nation back on track after a lacklustre seventh day, where Canadian athletes were kept off the podium and the news was dominated by curler Rachel Homan’s controversial loss to Denmark.