BEIJING 鈥� Upset after settling for silver at last year's world championship, Isabelle Weidemann wanted to give her teammates a reminder of what she felt they could achieve.
That night in the Netherlands, she cut yellow construction paper into "golden tickets" and slid them under their door.
"I think we each put them in our wallets," Weidemann said. "You still have your golden ticket. You still can cash it. It expires tonight, so that was good."
There's no need for tickets anymore. Now they've got the real thing.聽
Weidemann, Ivanie Blondin and Val茅rie Maltais won long-track speedskating gold Tuesday at the Beijing Games, finishing first in the women's team pursuit in an Olympic-record time of two minutes 53.44 seconds.
A thrilling final against Japan seemed primed for a tight finish. But the race ended in unexpected fashion when Nana Takagi went down on the final turn.聽
She appeared to lose her balance and crashed into the padding on the outside of the track. Japan was clinging to a lead of 0.32 seconds with a half-lap to go.
"The last part of the race is our strongest," Blondin said. "I think that we would have caught them."
Takagi broke down in tears after getting back up on her skates and finishing the race.聽
鈥淢y mind hasn鈥檛 recovered from the fall," she said. "It鈥檚 hard for me to think or talk about it right now.鈥�
Takagi was consoled by teammates Ayano Sato and Miho Takagi, her sister.聽
The final time isn't recorded until all skaters cross the line, giving the Canadians an 11.03-second margin of victory.
"We're giving everything we have," Weidemann said. "We're all going to the blackout zone. We were just going to cross the line having spent it all.聽
"It took us a while at the end to figure it all out."
It was Weidemann's third medal of the Games and first trip to the top of the podium. The Ottawa skater won silver in the 5,000 metres at the Ice Ribbon and bronze in the 3,000.
"She has put in the work," Maltais said. "She has a good grind. She put her head down and she's doing everything."
Maltais became the third athlete in Winter Games history to win Olympic medals in short-track and long-track events, the Canadian Olympic Committee said. American Eric Flaim and Jorien ter Mors of the Netherlands are the others.
Alexa Scott of Clandeboye, Man., is also on the Canadian roster but did not race on the final day. The Netherlands beat Russia for the bronze.
Canada did not qualify for the semifinals in men's team pursuit. Norway beat Russia for gold and the United States took the bronze.聽
Toronto's Jordan Belchos, Calgary's Ted-Jan Bloemen and Winnipeg's Tyson Langelaar beat South Korea in the C final to finish fifth overall.
Team pursuit involves three skaters per country racing both head-to-head against another team and the clock.聽
The discipline made its Olympic debut at the 2006 Turin Games in Italy.聽
Canada won silver in women's team pursuit that year and hadn't returned to the Olympic podium in the competition until Beijing. Blondin, Weidemann and Josie Morrison finished fourth at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games in South Korea.
Weidemann became the second Canadian long-track speedskater to win more than two medals at a single Games. Cindy Klassen won five medals in Turin.
Earlier Tuesday, the same trio of Weidemann, Ottawa's Blondin and Maltais, from Saguenay, Que., beat the Netherlands in the semifinal.聽
It was the same Dutch trio of Ireen W眉st, Irene Schouten and Antoinette de Jong that beat them a year ago in Heerenveen, a defeat Maltais said "kept the fire alive."
"We didn't lose to the Dutch, we gave it to them," Weidemann said. "We felt salty about it and we wanted to improve."
Those efforts paid off Tuesday when it mattered most.
"I think it was pretty perfect and I don't know if we've said that yet," Weidemann said of the race. "Even winning (other events), we've always looked for more and more. We've always wanted to be better.聽
"I think this is a pretty sweet top."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2022.
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Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press
