BEIJING — Three different Canadian women joined forces on a journey to Olympic gold four years ago.
Isabelle Weidemann, Ivanie Blondin and Valérie Maltais took their contrasting traits and melded them into a winning alchemy in speedskating's women's team pursuit in Beijing.
"When we originally started to put this team together, we sat down looked at everybody's strengths and weaknesses," Weidemann recalled Wednesday at the main press centre.
"We thought, 'how can we fill each other's weaknesses with the other's strengths and really make a team that complemented each other?'
"What makes our team so special is the fact that we're very different."
The pursuit demands three skaters meshing power and speed, with smooth transitions when the lead woman providing a draft for her teammates switches out.
Blondin brings the grit, Maltais greases the wheels and Weidemann provides a big engine for a trio that set an Olympic record en route to Tuesday's victory at the Ice Ribbon.
Weidemann returns to Canada with a complete set of hardware after silver in the 5,000 and bronze in the 3,000.
A seasoned short-tracker, Maltais of La Baie, Que., became a long-track student at age 28 when she made the switch in 2018.
Ottawa's Blondin, 31, and Weidemann, 26, were longtime pursuit teammates having finished fourth in the Winter Olympics that year.
"Val, she brings this aspect of communication to our group," Weidemann said. "She's very good at defusing situations, making sure that we're communicating, that we're on the same page.
"Ivanie and I have been in long-track forever and Val brought this new curious kind of mindset to it. That gave us quite a spark. She brought the fire back, I think, to our team.Â
"Ivanie has always brought the grit. She will fight till the very end of every race. That is so easy to invest in when we go to the line to know that my teammate is going to push me, she's going to empty the tank and she is going to give everything that she's got."
The reserved Weidemann was initially tough for Maltais to read.
"Izzy, what she brings is perseverance and hard work," Maltais said. "Izzy, on my personal side, she was one who was the hardest to break her shell, and know 'what is your thoughts and feelings?'"
A carousel of coaches in her early years on the national team made Weidemann a go-it-alone athlete. During a lunch last summer, Maltais asked pointed questions of Weidemann to better know what made her teammate tick.
"She asked me some pretty hard-hitting questions, but in no way were they threatening, in no way was she accusing me," Weidemann recalled. "She wanted to have a conversation.
"Nobody had asked me those questions before. She just wanted to know how she could help me the best that she could.
"It's taken me a long time to be able to express myself and share the things I think that are difficult. When you don't trust other people, when you don't share, who are you going to celebrate with at the end of the day?"
A trio of women establishing that trust put their names in Canadian speedskating's history books.
"Sharing a medal, the three of us, is something that will tie us together for life," Maltais said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 16, 2022.
Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press
