St-Gelais gives golden effort
Speedskater Marianne St- Gelais has no need to sign up for one of those online personality tests to discover what makes her tick.
For evidence, she can merely click on the viral YouTube video of her reaction to fiancé Charles Hamelin’s golden 500- metres race at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
“I’m really emotional,” says the St- Felicien, Que. native in what amounts to a minor understatement.
After working all year to tame those emotions, StGelais won 1,500-metre gold on the weekend at the ISU world short track speedskating championships in Seoul, South Korea along with silver medals in the 500 metres and the relay.
“I can’t change who I am,” she says. “And I like who I am. I’m spontaneous and happy. But on the ice, I have to do my job which is winning, and I have to be more aggressive.”
With help from a sports psychologist, St- Gelais learned to channel the stress and anxiety she used to feel on race day into excitement. To preserve precious energy, she stopped watching Charles and her future brother- inlaw Francois Hamelin prior to her own competitions.
After a shaky start to the world championships, Charles Hamelin mastered his own races Sunday with gold in the 1,000 metres and bronze in the 3,000- metre super final.
On a six- medal day for Canada, Samuel Girard, of Ferland- et- Boilleau, Que., won silver behind Hamelin in the men’s 1,000 metres. Kasandra Bradette, of St-Felicien, Que, collected bronze in the women’s 1,000 metres at her first world championships, The Canadian men and women both won silver in the relays. In long track, Ottawa’s Ivanie Blondin won World Cup silver in the mass start Sunday and wrapped up the season ranked second overall after the final event in Heerenveen, Netherlands.
Canada is generally a footnote at most major biathlon competitions much like Switzerland or Belarus at the world junior hockey championships.
But sometimes the impossible happens like on Saturday when Canada won an improbable world biathlon championship bronze medal in the men’s relay.
After the fact, the Canadian underdogs — Nathan Smith, Scott Gow and Christian Gow, all of Calgary, and Brendan Green, of Hay River, NWT, — soaked up the magic of the moment in biathlonmad Oslo, Norway.
The relay consists of each athlete skiing 7.5 kilometres with two bouts of shooting. Christian Gow skied a personal- best opening leg and shot clean to finish just 14 second behind the leaders. Then Smith took over and put down the fastest ski time in the second leg to catapult the Canadians into medal position.
Canada failed to win an overall medal in the inaugural Ski Tour Canada — an eight-stage cross-country ski race that started in Gatineau Quebec and ended Saturday in the majestic Rocky Mountains.
Alex Harvey, of Saint- Ferrol-les Neiges- Que., finished fifth overall and seized silver on the Plains of Abraham in stage three of the gruelling event modelled after the Tour de France.
But Canada might have actually won something greater in the big picture: an opportunity to host the tour again in the 2019-20 World Cup season.