Canada's Ivanie Blondin has won a silver medal in women's mass start speed skating at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. It's her fourth career Olympic medal.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Long track speed skater Ivanie Blondin has won a silver medal in the women’s mass start for the second Olympic Games in a row.
It’s also the second time this Olympics that Blondin has repeated one of her Beijing 2022 medals. Earlier in the Games, she and teammates Valérie Maltais and Isabelle Weidemann defended their gold medal win in the women’s team pursuit.
Saturday’s silver brought Canada’s total medal tally to 19 and Blondin’s personal career Olympic medal haul to four.
“Whatever happened today, if I was on the podium, I was going to be extremely happy. I couldn’t have asked for a better end,” she said.
Long track’s mass start race is a punishing 16 laps of the oval, covering nearly 6.5 kilometres of ice. It is the only long track event where all of the skaters begin at the same time, similar to short track speed skating, and where the winner is the first to cross the line. Long track is typically a race against the clock.
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It’s a format that Blondin, who began her career as a short track skater, is comfortable with. The 35-year-old from Ottawa said that during the qualifying semi-final round, she decided to play it conservatively and save energy. She wanted to do just enough to get into the final race. From there, she played it aggressive off the top to prevent any breakaway skaters, but then patiently waited for the final corner to make her move on the leader.
In a dramatic setback, Blondin’s teammate, Maltais, who had been looking for her fourth medal of the Milan Cortina Games, took a fall in the second lap of Saturday’s race.
“I hit my blade with someone and there was nothing I could do in the moment. But the one thing that I could do was to stand up,” Maltais, also 35, said afterward. The peleton of skaters was soon a half a lap around the oval ahead of her.
“I was like, ‘Oh it’s going to be a long race if I have to skate those laps alone,’” she said laughing. But she pushed forward and steadily gained ground. “I was able to recover in the race and not panic.”
Maltais, left, took part in her fifth Olympic Games, while teammate Blondin, right, took part in her fourth. This will be the duo's final Olympic appearance.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Still, making up the ground forced Maltais to use up extra energy. She finished in fifth.
“I was seeing double at some point. I was really exhausted, but I was able to recover,” she said.
Canada’s Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu also made the final, but was sixth in the men’s mass start.
For both Blondin and Maltais, Milan Cortina will represent their last Olympics. Maltais, who has been to five Games, said that she would absolutely miss it, but she is ready for her next chapter. The mass start finish doesn’t take anything away from her experience in Milan.
“Being my last Olympics, having three podiums, finishing fifth today under these circumstances where I just gave my best, why would I be disappointed?” she said, adding that getting to celebrate with Blondin was the icing on the cake.
Speaking to reporters after the event, Blondin said that after she quit short track, she thought she was done for good. She was in a depression and struggling with an eating disorder. Through long track, she found her second act in speed skating. She thrived training in Calgary and went on to appear at four Olympic Games, winning four medals between the last two.
“If I wrote everything down and knew that I was going to accomplish what I’ve accomplished when I was 13 or 14 years old, I probably wouldn’t have believed it,” she said. “I’m very proud of myself.”
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