Canada's long track speed skaters roll into a new season
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With the next Winter Olympics now just 15 months away, it looks like long track speed skating will once again be a major source of medals for Canada.
In 2022, Canadian long trackers won five of the country's 26 medals in Beijing, trailing only the snowboarders (six) for the most in any one discipline. And the skaters seem poised for another big haul next winter in northern Italy.
Canada won a national-record 10 medals at the world single distances championships last February in Calgary, trailing only the powerhouse Netherlands (13). The single distances worlds are very similar to the Olympics in terms of the races offered, though Canada's only gold medals came in the two events that are not on the Olympic program: the men's and women's team sprints.
Still, eight medals across the 14 events that do have a place on the Olympic program is pretty good, and several Canadians stood out.
Ivanie Blondin and Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu, who had a hand in the team sprint victories, each went home with three medals. Blondin took silver in the women's team pursuit with Isabelle Weidemann and Valérie Maltais (the same trio that won Canada's lone long-track gold at the 2022 Olympics) and added another silver in the individual mass start. Gélinas-Beaulieu claimed silver in the men's mass start and bronze in the team pursuit.
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Canada's other multi-medal winners were Laurent Dubreuil (gold in the men's team sprint, silver in the solo 500m) and