Multi-Olympic medallists Charles Hamelin and Kim Boutin will lead Team Canada’s contingent of 10 short track speed skaters to Beijing 2022.
Canada qualified the maximum five men and five women on the strength of results achieved during four World Cup competitions this fall.
Joining Hamelin on the men’s side will be Pascal Dion, who is headed to his second straight Olympic Games, as well as Olympic rookies Steven Dubois, Maxime Laoun and Jordan Pierre-Gilles.
Boutin will be the only woman on the team with Olympic experience as she is joined by Danaé Blais, Florence Brunelle, Alyson Charles and Courtney Sarault.
Hamelin will become the first Canadian short track speed skater to compete in five Olympic Games, tying the all-time participations record in his sport before his career comes to a close.
Hamelin has won five medals in his first four Olympic appearances, putting him just one medal shy of Canada’s all-time Winter Olympic record held by Cindy Klassen. He started with a silver in the 5000m relay at Turin 2006 before becoming a double gold medallist at Vancouver 2010 where his victories in the 500m and 5000m relay came within a 30-minute span. At Sochi 2014, he added a gold in the 1500m and then won bronze in the 5000m relay at PyeongChang 2018. At 33, he was the oldest man to ever win an Olympic medal in short track speed skating.
Over the course of his long career, Hamelin has won 30 world championship medals in Olympic events. That includes 12 gold, the most recent coming in the 1500m in 2021. Hamelin finished off his 19th World Cup season at the end of November by winning his 142nd career medal on the circuit.
The rising talent on the team is headlined by Dion, who won bronze alongside Hamelin in the 5000m relay during his Olympic debut at PyeongChang 2018. He was Canada’s top man on the World Cup circuit this fall, highlighted by finishing first overall in the 1000m standings after winning medals in three of four races in the distance. He also won a 1500m silver.
Dubois won his second straight overall title at the Canadian Championships this year before heading out onto the World Cup circuit where he won an individual 500m silver. Dubois had been Canada’s top-ranked man on the World Cup circuit in 2018-19 and 2019-20.
Laoun and Pierre-Gilles both competed at their first ISU World Championships earlier this year. Throughout the fall, all five men played a part in Canada finishing first overall in the 5000m relay after winning two gold and one silver in the four races.
Boutin had an outstanding Olympic debut on the ice at PyeongChang 2018 where she was Canada’s only triple medallist, leading to her selection as Team Canada’s Closing Ceremony flag bearer. She was just the second woman in the world to ever win a medal in all three individual short track events at one Olympic Games as she won silver in the 1000m and bronze in the 500m and 1500m.
Boutin is the world record holder in the 500m, a mark she set in November 2019 en route to five World Cup gold medals in the distance that season before competitions were halted because of the pandemic. In her return to international racing this fall, she finished second overall in the 500m standings. The last time she competed at the ISU World Championships in 2019, she won the overall bronze medal while taking silver in the 1500m and bronze in the 1000m.
Sarault has been competing on the World Cup circuit since 2018-19, on the heels of being the overall silver medallist at the 2018 World Junior Championships. She made the most of her only opportunity to compete internationally last season, winning the overall silver medal at the 2021 World Championships after taking 1500m silver and 1000m bronze. This fall, she won three World Cup medals in the 1500m to finish third overall in the distance.
Brunelle will be the youngest ever member of a Canadian Olympic short track team. She’ll compete in Beijing less than two months after her 18th birthday. Brunelle won two medals at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games just a couple of weeks before winning two medals at the ISU World Junior Championships. She made her senior international debut at the 2021 World Championships before finishing third overall at the Canadian Championships in August, leading to her World Cup debut this fall.
Charles made a splash at her very first World Cup in the fall of 2018 when she won two 500m medals. She’s been a steady member of the team ever since. Blais has been a full time member of the World Cup team since 2019-20 and made her world championship debut earlier this year. Canada won two World Cup silver medals in the women’s 3000m relay this fall.
Beijing 2022 will mark 30 years that short track speed skating has been an official sport on the Winter Olympic program. Since that debut at Albertville 1992, Canada has won 33 medals (9 gold, 12 silver, 12 bronze), tying China for total medals won behind only South Korea with 48 medals. It is also the second-most medals Canada has won in any Winter Olympic sport, behind only the 37 in long track speed skating.
Some of Canada’s most decorated Winter Olympians have been short track speed skaters. In addition to Hamelin, Marc Gagnon (3 gold, 2 bronze) – now the assistant coach of the Olympic team – and François-Louis Tremblay (2 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze) are also five-time Olympic medallists.
Short track speed skating at Beijing 2022 will take place at the Capital Indoor Stadium, a venue it will share with figure skating. Competition begins on Day 1, February 5, a session that will include the Olympic debut of the mixed team relay. There will be five more days of competition on February 7, 9, 11, 13, and 16.
Team Canada Short Track Speed Skaters at Beijing 2022:
Danaé Blais (Châteauguay, QC)
Kim Boutin (Sherbrooke, QC)
Florence Brunelle (Trois-Rivières, QC)
Alyson Charles (Montreal, QC)
Courtney Sarault (Moncton, NB)
Pascal Dion (Montreal, QC)
Steven Dubois (Lachenaie, QC)
Charles Hamelin (Sainte-Julie, QC)
Maxime Laoun (Montreal, QC)
Jordan Pierre-Gilles (Sherbrooke, QC)
