Key takeaways:
- Here’s what you might have forgotten on Day 1 of the Beijing Olympic Winter Games.
- Bronze medallist Isabelle Weidemann marks during the females’ 3,000-meter flower ceremony.
- On Saturday, Weidemann succeeded Canada’s first medal at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games and became just the third Canadian female to win an award in the Olympic event.
Isabelle Weidemann earns the first medal for Canada:
Speed skater Isabelle Weidemann succeeded Canada’s first award on Day 1 of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, earning bronze in the women’s 3,000 meters on Saturday in Beijing.
The 26-year-old from Ottawa set up a time of three minutes, 58.64 seconds, en route to her top Olympic podium result.
“I was a little bit unsteady at the beginning. I was scared going to the line,” an elated Weidemann said after the race. Source – cbc.ca
“I knew that I had to reach through the first few laps before I could begin to fight and show the job that I’ve done. I think I had almost four laps to go, and I could see my pair was starting to slow down a little bit, and I knew I had a little bit better. Source – cbc.ca
So I think at that point I was like, ‘I can combat this.'” Source – cbc.ca
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The victory was Canada’s fourth Olympic bronze medal all-time in the contest.
Weidemann’s race was also the quickest any Canadian has achieved in the event at the Olympics.
Her bronze award also celebrated Canada’s 200th all-time medal at the Winter Olympics.
The King is dethroned
Canada’s Mikaël Kingsbury has succeeded an Olympic medal but could not uphold his men’s Olympic barons title, prevailing silver on Saturday.
Kingsbury ended with 82.18 points in the six-man super final at Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou, behind Walter Wallberg of Sweden, who achieved 83.23.
