Photograph by Yang Lei/ Zuma/ Keystone
It probably wasn’t the way Charles Hamelin envisioned redeeming himself at the Olympics—not exactly, anyway—but as he and his teammates know all too well, there is no such thing as a predictable outcome in short-track speed skating. Sure, Hamelin was ranked first in the world in the 500-m. And, yes, he was expected to get on the podium after disappointing performances in the 1,500-m and the 1,000-m races. But nobody could have guessed how the final few seconds of his first golden performance at the Games would transpire.
Two wipeouts on the final stretch of the last lap left Hamelin staggering across the finish line in first place—a moment he would later describe as “the greatest day of my life.” But it wasn’t immediately apparent to the boisterous crowd at the Pacific Coliseum what, exactly, had just happened. That confusion was written all over the face of Hamelin’s girlfriend and fellow Olympic short-track medal winner, Marianne St-Gelais, who was watching the race from the stands. She was jumping up and down one moment, dumbfounded the next, and then screaming with excitement as she climbed over the railing to embrace Hamelin after he was declared the gold-medal winner. Such is the sport of short-track skating, where disqualifications, crashes and come-from-behind wins are the norm as skaters whip around a rink on a blade’s edge.
Until that moment, St-Gelais, a rising star, had done much of the heavy lifting for Canada’s short-track team. She won a silver medal in the women’s 500-m race. Then she, along with Tania Vicent, Jessica Gregg and Kalyna Roberge, won a silver in the women’s 3,000-m relay.
In some ways, those achievements only served to heighten the pressure on the men. But just in case Canadians were left to ponder the possibility that Hamelin had somehow fluked his way onto the top of the podium on the final day of short-track competition, he went on to give a dominating performance later that evening during the men’s 5,000-m relay, helping the Canadian team, which included his younger brother François Hamelin, win its second gold in short track that night. In doing so, he became the only Canadian athlete to win two golds in Vancouver. Altogether, the five medals—two gold, two silver and one bronze—put Canada’s short-track team just shy of Speed Skating Canada’s goal of six, which earlier on in the Games seemed like a rather ambitious target.
Given Hamelin’s status as the most accomplished member of the team, Canadians were understandably looking for a gold rush every time he doffed his skate guards. While his younger brother François was the one who got the family into short track—he apparently picked the sport out of a book of winter activities offered in Sainte-Julie, Que.—it was Charles who turned out to be the skating phenom, racking up world championships and earning a silver relay medal in Turin. The two brothers have been chasing each other all their lives, according to their father, Yves: “On bike, on ice, in any environment. I would say at the beginning François was chasing Charles, and later on Charles was chasing François.”
But when the medals didn’t materialize after the first couple of events in Vancouver, questions began to emerge about whether Hamelin had cracked under the pressure of competing at home. His first race was the men’s 1,500-m—not his best distance, but still one that many expected to see him win a medal in. Instead, he finished seventh. The disappointment was etched on his face and evident in his voice after the race. “I didn’t do as good as I can do,” said Hamelin, who came into the Games as the reigning World Cup champion. As he spoke, a TV monitor behind him flashed the medal ceremony that was taking place on the ice. “It’s just a matter of using the energy in a bad moment,” he said, explaining why he appeared to run out of gas near the end of the race.
Hamelin did better in the 1,000-m, racing alongside his brother, but ended up in fourth (François finished fifth). While observers noted that the skaters were no longer on track to win the promised half-dozen medals, Yves Hamelin, the one-time coach to both Charles and François, put a positive spin on the situation. “They made a great race, in such a race you don’t control everything,” he said. “Right after, I told them: be proud about what you’ve done and the quality of the racing.” Besides, there were still the 500-m and relay events. But what if those races also took an unexpected turn?
Fortunately for Canada, the women’s short-track skaters stepped in as the men faltered. St-Gelais awoke in the Olympic Village on Feb. 17—her 20th birthday—with the feeling that comes when you’re young, and all things are possible. Hamelin, her boyfriend, whom she describes as shy off the ice, marked the day by giving her a bouquet of flowers, some Olympic clothing and the encouragement she could accomplish great things that night. As for her race strategy, she had three objectives. “Getting into the top eight was quite feasible,” she said. “The top four was quite ambitious. And the top three was a dream.”
Photograph by David Gray/Reuters
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