Short-track teammates race to gold and silver
Cournoyer snatches win from Girard as youngsters shine at World Cup event
In short-track speedskating, the unwritten rules of etiquette deem teammates must not attempt to pass one another in risky fashion when medals are on the line.
With two laps to go in Sunday’s 1,000-metre World Cup race, Charle Cournoyer had a choice to make: settle for silver or attempt to overtake Canadian prodigy Samuel Girard.
He went for it. Cournoyer charged to the front — making sure to leave plenty of room to avoid clipping his comrade and causing an untimely spill — to win gold for Canada at Calgary’s Olympic Oval. Girard, 20, claimed silver.
The pair high-fived to celebrate what they hope is the first of many one-two Canadian finishes in the 2016-17 World Cup season.
“We don’t team skate at all,” Cournoyer said later, with the gold medal around his neck.
“But we don’t skate against each other. We try not to put each other in trouble.”
Passing is dangerous business in short track, but Girard harbours no ill will toward Cournoyer for stealing the gold.
If the roles were reversed, Girard would do exactly the same thing.
“All the passes we do when it’s another Canadian like that, we make sure it’s 100 per cent clean,” Girard said.
“We are a team. We skate for Canada to win medals for Canada.
“It feels like gold for me. Canada won a gold. So a gold for me or a gold for Charle is the same thing.”
On a weekend where superstars Charles Hamelin and Marianne St-Gelais experienced calamity, the youngsters stepped up with podium performances.
Jamie Macdonald of Fort St. James, B.C., won only the second World Cup medal of her career with a silver in the women’s 500 metres. Macdonald is the only member of the senior national team from Western Canada. Much like a junior hockey player, she moved from Northern B.C. to Calgary at age 16 for the chance to train in a world-class environment at the Olympic Oval.
This summer, she packed up her belongings yet again to join the rest of the short-track team at Montreal’s Maurice Richard Arena.
On Sunday, she posted a career-best performance on what is pegged the fastest ice in the world.
“My family and friends are here, and I feel like I got to share this special moment with them,” she said. “I feel incredibly happy.” Happy is not the word anyone would use to describe Charles Hamelin’s mood after a weekend to forget for the three-time Olympic gold medallist.
“I fell in every single distance I competed in,” he grumbled.
Hamelin, 32, blamed himself for the tumbles in the 500 m and the 1,000 m.
He was irate, however, as the video replay showed a Hungarian skater pushed him to the ground in the 5,000-metre men’s relay.
“We had a shot to win that relay, and we were feeling really good,” Hamelin said of the Canadian team that settled for fourth place.
“Yes, there is next weekend, but we could have won.”
Hamelin’s fiancée, Marianne St-Gelais, won silver on Saturday but suffered dizzy spells on Sunday that left her shaky and unable to skate at her normal warp speed.
St-Gelais is under the care of the team doctor, and she expects to compete next weekend in Salt Lake City.