By Dan Plouffe
Ivanie Blondin likes to be busy at all times, and that will certainly be the case when the 33-year-old speed skater from Ottawa competes on home ice at the 2024 ISU World Speed Skating Single Distances Championships
The three-time Olympian will be one of Canada’s top podium contenders in multiple events as she prepares to race every day of the Feb. 15-18 meet in Calgary, and twice on the opening day.
The heavy schedule is no different than your average World Cup weekend for Blondin, who often races a half-dozen times at each meet while most others do one or two.
“Mentally that’s kind of how I’m programmed – I’m just I’m always, ‘go, go, go,’” Blondin told the Ottawa Sports Pages earlier this month in Quebec City during a World Cup meet.
“To be honest, mentally, it’s almost better for me. I’m a fighter. And it just takes away a little bit of stress to do so many (races), because I do one and then I’m on to the next one, so it kind of keeps my mind occupied. I feel like if I were to just have one event for the weekend, I would get too stressed out just for that one.
“Yeah, it takes a little bit of energy, but I also think I’m fit enough to be able to do it obviously.”
The busy-bee approach has proven fruitful. Blondin is the owner of 19 medals from Olympic Games, Four Continents or World Championships, 76 World Cup medals, and three overall World Cup season titles, five runner-up finishes and a trio of third-places.
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She also recently earned her fifth Kristina Groves Female Athlete of the Year Trophy from the Ottawa Sports Awards – one away from the record.
Of all the great meets Blondin’s had in her career, the most recent one was not among them.
From Feb. 2-4, Quebec City hosted its first World Cup in 32 years, and the first since the Centre de glaces Intact Assurance opened as an indoor venue in 2021.
The last race on the docket was perhaps the most highly anticipated, with Blondin having the chance to overtake Valérie Maltais for the overall World Cup crown in the women’s mass start, and both Canadians trying to hold off rival Irene Schouten from the Netherlands.
But when seven lower-ranked skaters formed a breakaway in the 16-lap race, it meant that the season standings were unlikely to change. Despite this, Blondin found herself dodging a Dutch skater sliding in front of her on the final turn, which killed her speed for the sprint down the home stretch.
Blondin finished 12th in the race, but still collected a giant sparkling trophy for her second-place finish in the season’s mass start rankings, which matched her Canadian team pursuit squad’s finish.
In Quebec City, the Gloucester Concordes product also placed eighth in the 1,500 metres to rank sixth overall and 11th in the 3,000 m to rank eighth. Blondin opted for a slightly lighter schedule in her last meet before the World Championships and skipped the 1,000 m, but still ranked 13th.
She also barely took a stride in the team sprint event because teammate Maddison Pearman stumbled and fell off the start line, effectively ending the Canadians’ race before it started.
“It’s better that it happened then than World Championships,” stated Blondin, who pronounced herself “excited” to compete at worlds in the mass start (the women’s final is scheduled for Saturday at 5:44 p.m. ET), the team pursuit (Friday at 2:30 p.m. ET), the team sprint (Thursday at 5:27 p.m. ET), and the 3,000 m (Thursday at 2:30 p.m. ET) and the 1,500 m (Sunday at 5:08 p.m. ET ) too, despite “up and down” results in her individual distances this season.
A poor result or a poor meet won’t keep her down though, Blondin noted, in contrast to some earlier points in her career.
“Maybe it’s already getting Olympic medals, that stress is kind of gone – like, I’ve achieved my highest goal and now I can just have fun,” explained the Beijing 2022 gold and silver medallist. “Maybe it comes with age too, not being too hard on yourself.
“Maybe I’m finally growing up after 33 years.”
Blondin is certainly not slowly down at this stage in her career, however. Before her international season began, Blondin attended the Canadian short track team trials, and after racing in Calgary, she’s planning to jump on her bike “to change the mindset a little bit and keep it fresh.”
Blondin has signed with the Goldman Sachs Etfs Racing team for the summer, and plans to compete on eight weekends, mostly in criterium races in the U.S.
“It’s very much the same kind of ballgame as mass start – a little big longer obviously, but it’s very similar,” Blondin said of the races that often feature tight courses in urban settings and last roughly an hour.
“I’m very competitive, so I don’t think I’m ever gonna lose that fire,” she added, “but I also just want to have fun at this point in my life – to enjoy my last couple of years, I guess.”
De Haître ‘has to be proud’ of ‘moderate improvements’ this year
Even though his results haven’t been spectacular, fellow Concordes product Vincent de Haître has similarly worked to appreciate what he’s got this season.
He enjoyed getting to race in Quebec City in front of some hometown supporters who rarely get to watch him skate live. Looking back on his early days can sometimes help spark motivation and inspiration, highlighted de Haître, who posted a photo of himself as a young kid in an oversized padded skinsuit in advance of the event.
“When I look back to when I was kid, I had a dream to go to the Olympics and I did it. I had a dream of going in two sports and I did it. And I had a dream of going to multiple Olympics and I did that,” reflected the 29-year-old. “I can’t say that I’ve had an unsuccessful career by any means. I just want to keep that success going for a little longer. I kind of reached for the stars and got tripped up along the way. But my body is still strong and my mind is still motivated.”
After switching to track cycling and competing in the delayed Tokyo Summer Olympics, de Haître has struggled to regain the speed skating form that saw him finish the 2017 season ranked second in the world in the men’s 1,000 m.
Before the current season began, de Haître split from the national team program and elected to write his only training plan, while working with the Oval group that he joined when he first moved to Calgary.
Read More: Vincent De Haître strides away from national team, seeks return to world-class speed skating form
“I’ve seen moderate improvement, I would say,” indicated de Haître, who developed a leaner physique this past summer, got his injuries under control and improved his vertical jump by 6 centimetres to achieve the physical benchmarks he sought, but he’s struggled on the technical side of skating.
“I was doing some exercises in the summer that reinforced some really bad habits, so I’ve spent the whole season working to fight against those,” he explained.
De Haître finished 20th in the World Cup standings for the 1,000 m. His best result was a season-opening 11th. He ranked 24th in the 1,500 m, with a top finish of 12th.
“Now I’m back in the ‘A’ group (for the top-20 skaters), and I’ll have carding (national funding) next year, which I don’t have this year,” noted de Haître, who is after a top-15 finish at worlds. “It might not be the results that I have in my memory of what I’m used to, but it’s moving in the right direction, and I have to be proud of that.”
Ottawa’s Isabelle Weidemann also experienced a step backwards, but is on an upswing leading into worlds.
After poor showings early in the season, the 28-year-old elected to withdraw from several European meets to focus on her training in preparation for the World Championships.
The 2022 Olympic triple-medallist had to skate in the women’s 3,000 m ‘B’ division the weekend before Quebec in Salt Lake City because she’d missed earlier races, but she topped that event with a time that was better than all posted in the ‘A’ division.
Weidemann then placed fourth in the ‘A’ division at Quebec City, just .06 seconds behind bronze-medallist Maltais.
Her women’s 3,000 m event kicks off the four-day World Championships, while she’ll also race the team pursuit Friday and the 5,000 m on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET.
Weidemann’s younger brother Jake will compete in the men’s mass start semi-finals Saturday at 3:18 p.m. ET.
The 27-year-old owns an undefeated record in the mass start, having won his debut World Cup race in Quebec City over 10 other skaters in the ‘B’ division event.
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