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Coming off back-to-back Winter Olympics at which they received simply two medals, Canada’s lengthy monitor speed skaters captured 5 final February in Beijing, matching the nation’s second-highest single-Games complete. Isabelle Weidemann, Ivanie Blondin and Valérie Maltais received gold in the ladies’s crew pursuit, Blondin added a silver in the mass begin and Weidemann grabbed a silver and a bronze in the long-distance races to finish the Olympic-medal rainbow and earn the honour of carrying the Canadian flag on the closing ceremony. On the boys’s aspect, Laurent Dubreuil rebounded from a disappointing podium miss in the five hundred metres to take silver in the 1,000.
The Beijing efficiency was no fluke, as Canadian skaters produced glorious outcomes all season lengthy. Dubreuil captured the World Cup title in the boys’s 500 after reaching the rostrum in 9 of the ten races; Weidemann, Blondin and Maltais received the ladies’s mass begin title after sweeping their three races; whereas Blondin (girls’s mass begin), Connor Howe (males’s 1,500), Ted-Jan Bloemen (males’s lengthy distances) and the boys’s pursuit crew earned top-three finishes in the standings. The season did finish on a bitter notice with Canada getting shut out of the medals on the world allround and dash championships in March, however that may be excused coming off the Olympic peak a few weeks earlier.
A brand new worldwide lengthy monitor season opens Friday by Sunday in Norway, the opening cease on the World Cup circuit. Then it is off to the Netherlands for one more World Cup meet subsequent week earlier than Canada hosts three straight December occasions: the Four Continents championships in Quebec adopted by a World Cup doubleheader in Calgary. The World Cup season closes with two stops in Poland in February earlier than the world championships in the Netherlands in March.
WATCH | Blondin calm forward of World Cup season:
A gold and silver medal for Ivanie Blondin on the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games lifted a great weight off the shoulders of the three-time Olympian.
Canadians may discover the trail to the rostrum a bit simpler this season as a number of worldwide stars retired after the world championships. They embody Swedish long-distance king Nils van der Poel, who went out in type by sweeping the boys’s 5,000m and 10,000m gold medals on the Olympics earlier than including the allround world title, and Dutch legends Ireen Wüst and Sven Kramer. Wüst received her sixth Olympic gold medal in 5 Games in Beijing. Kramer missed the rostrum there earlier than strolling away with a file 9 world allround championships and 4 Olympic titles.
You can watch all three days of the World Cup opener in Norway dwell on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem, beginning Friday at 11 a.m. ET. Catch extra protection on the CBC TV community Saturday from 3-4 p.m. ET. See the total CBC Sports broadcast and streaming schedules right here for particulars.
Meanwhile, Canada’s quick monitor speed skaters have their very own Four Continents championships beginning Friday in Salt Lake City. Through two World Cup stops this season, Canadian quick trackers have received 12 medals — seven particular person and 5 in relays. Leading the way in which with two solo podiums is 2022 Olympic triple medallist Steven Dubois, who received gold in the boys’s 500 and silver in the 1,500 on the World Cup opener in Montreal two weeks in the past. You can stream the Four Continents dwell on CBC Sports’ digital platforms on Friday and Saturday beginning at 6 p.m. ET.