BEIJING — Isabelle Weidemann crossed the finish line, and looked up at her time, bent over with exhaustion. She tugged off her hood, her face crumpling with emotion.
Four years since she narrowly missed the podium in Pyeongchang, with countless monotonous turns of the oval in between, the hard work had paid off.
The 26-year-old from Ottawa captured not only Canada's first medal of the Beijing Olympics, a bronze in long-track speedskating's 3,000 metres, but the first medal by a Canadian woman in her sport since the 2010 Games.
"I’m very overwhelmed," she said with a wide smile. "But a good feeling, though. I’m just so proud to be able to bring home a medal for Canada.
"There was so much work that’s gone into the last four years," added Weidemann. "Not just physically for me, but mental performance and recovery, all these little aspects. But to make that jump (from fourth), it really solidified for me that the work wasn’t just for nothing."
Weidemann, who was part of the Canadian foursome who finished a heartbreaking fourth in the team pursuit in Pyeongchang, raced like the hunter in her pairing with Norway's Ragne Wiklund on Saturday night.
Preserving her speed for a fast finish, she was in seventh with four laps to go in the 7.5-lap race. Two laps later, she was in second. Stretching out her long legs on her six-foot-two frame — she's a head taller than the gold and silver medallists — she powered around the final lap to finish in three minutes 58.64 seconds at the Ice Ribbon oval.
"If you break, you never get that speed back, so I wanted to make sure that I just stayed steady the whole time," Weidemann said.
"You go into a zone (on the last lap) where you are not thinking about the ice or anything. Because it hurts every time, whether it’s slow or fast."
Weidemann knew she had a medal with the top time heading into the final pairing of Dutch star Irene Schouten, who hasn't lost a race this season, and Italy's Francesca Lollobrigida, whose great-aunt is 1950s movie star Gina Lollobrigida. Schouten skated to the top of the podium in an Olympic-record time of 3:56.93, followed by Lollobrigida at 3:58.06.
Weidemann's bronze was the first in the distance for a Canadian woman since Kristina Groves won bronze in 2010, a performance that planted the seeds of Weidemann's Olympic dream.
"She's my hometown hero," Weidemann said of the four-time Olympic medallist. "I grew up skating in the same town, the same club. She’s been an idol of mine for a very long time, I had posters of her on my wall. So, yeah, it’s very special."
Cindy Klassen also captured bronze in the 3,000 in both 2002 and '06.
Weidemann's race kicked off what could be a parade to the podium for Canadian speedskaters, who arrived in Beijing on the heels of a strong winter of skating.
"I think it's incredible," said Canadian Ivanie Blondin, who was 14th on Saturday. "Our team has really built up on the women's side, and I think it just goes to show, our first medal for Team Canada.
"And it's just like in Tokyo (Summer Olympics), where it was just like women, women, women," she added, on women winning Canada's first nine medals last summer. "And it was really empowering. And also to be part of such a strong team on the women's side as much as on the men's side."
Canadian Valerie Maltais was 12th on Saturday.
Weidemann, who was sixth in the 5,000 and seventh in the 3,000 four years ago, arrived in Beijing a medal contender in both those events. She climbed the podium in three World Cups this season, winning silver in Poland, Norway and Calgary. Her worst finish was a fourth in the 3,000 in Salt Lake City.
And so, Saturday night might not have been Weidemann's only walk to the medal podium — she's in both the 5,000 and the team pursuit. It's the payoff for four years and thousands of hours of work.
"I’m good at putting my head down and grinding through meaningless hours," she said. "For me it’s really about focusing on the specifics. So when I’m training, specifically for four minutes, that I wasn’t just doing hours on the bike, like garbage. So it was really a dialing in. Omitting the urge to do more and more and more. It was just really dialing it in."
The women's 3,000 was the first long-track race of the Games, where Canada is a medal favourite in several events.
The one thing missing on Saturday was fans. The atmosphere at the Ice Ribbon was nothing like previous Games or even World Cups, where Dutch fans in particular squeeze in shoulder to shoulder and clang cowbells and sing songs, decked out in garish orange outfits complete with horned hats.
COVID-19 safety measures restricted the crowd to only a couple hundred fans, who politely clapped as cheering isn't permitted.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 5, 2022.
Lori Ewing, The Canadian Press
Note to readers: Fixes day of event (Saturday) in six paragraph.
