MILAN – Isabelle Weidemann turned to Ivanie Blondin on the bench and said “last one” before stepping to the start line with Valérie Maltais for the women’s team pursuit.
“I was getting emotional,” Blondin said. “I was like ‘keep it together.'”
The Canadian trio repeated as Olympic champions Tuesday in what they said was likely their last race together, and four years after claiming gold in Beijing.
They defeated the Netherlands by just under a second with clockwork teamwork over six laps. Weidemann was the metronomic engine at the front, Maltais the powerful middle pusher and the tenacious, nimble Blondin bringing up the rear.
“Stamping gold on it, that’s a pretty big,” Weidemann said.
The Canadians trailed the Dutch early, but put the pedal down for the back half to secure a decisive victory and go out winners.
“We were calm, and just not afraid of anything,” Maltais said.
The women joked Tuesday that they were a team of “mesdames.”
Maltais of La Baie, Que., and Ottawa’s Blondin, both 35, are medal contenders in Saturday’s mass start. Ottawa’s Weidemann, 30, said the team pursuit might have been the last race of her speedskating career.
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Their post-race celebration with coach Remmelt Eldering featured five-foot-two Blondin flying into the arms of her six-foot-seven coach and toppling both of them.
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“I took him down. I have no regrets,” Blondin boasted.
Flanked by Weidemann and Maltais, and linked by two Canadian flags in their hands, Blondin shimmied on her skates to Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like A Woman” as the Canadians took their victory lap. The song was Blondin’s request to the team manager if they won.
“She actually honoured us on International Women’s Day, which was pretty cool. We also made a TikTok for her a long time ago,” Blondin explained.
“But I grew up listening to Shania Twain, so she’s one of my favourite country music artists. We were actually also in her documentary, at the end, in the credits on Netflix. I’d love to meet her one day. Just putting that out there.”
The women were still processing their accomplishment in post-race interviews. Weidemann described herself as delirious, and Blondin felt light-headed.
“I don’t know if I want to go puke or drink a beer,” Blondin declared.
The Canadians defeated the United States by almost four seconds in their semifinal. The Dutch dug deep to get by eventual bronze medallist Japan by just over a tenth of a second.
It wasn’t a smooth road for the Canadian women after Beijing. They were slower to adopt a no-change formation than other countries. Maltais moved back to Quebec from Calgary, so they trained together less. Other countries were beating them.
They renewed their commitment for this season with a pair of pursuit-specific training camps. They also rehabilitated their chemistry.
“We talked about what di we need each individually to be comfortable and to respect each other and to just make sure that everyone is in their zone to perform?” Maltais recalled. “It was a really powerful conversation that we had.
“I can be a little bit intense, and we all have our little things that maybe it’s going to be a distraction for the others. We learned from four years ago, and we grew again. That is precious, also to go to the line and just knowing that we’re just together in this.”
Maltais collected her second medal at her fifth Olympic Games. She took bronze in the 3,000 metres.
Weidemann claimed a fourth career medal after silver in the 5,000 and bronze in the 3,000 in Beijing. Blondin was a silver medallist in the mass start in 2022.
They produced Canada’s 12th medal and third gold at the Milan Cortina Games.
“We did the job,” Maltais said. “We did everything we could — and finishing with a gold, that’s special. It’s unique.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 17, 2026.
Note to readers:This is a corrected story. An earlier version incorrectly described the race as 12 laps. It is six laps with 12 intervals.
Beat those yanky cnts in hockey on Thursday, eh