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March 02, 2022
Canadian Athletes ‘Break the Bias’ and Score Gold
LIFESTYLE

On March 8th, we celebrate International Women’s Day.  The theme for this year is ‘Break the Bias.’ The past few years Canadian female athletes have broken barriers, and they did it again at this year’s Olympics in Beijing. 

Image: Captain Marie-Philip Poulin celebrating her first period goal. Photo by Mark Blinch/COC

Team Canada’s Long Track Speed Skating female team, consisting of Ivanie Blondin, Valerie Maltais and Isabelle Weidemann, won gold in the women’s pursuit making it Canada’s first Olympic medal in the event in 16 years! They did it by posting an Olympic record time of 2:53.44 in the final against Japan. 

This trio had some setbacks as they fell second place in the quarterfinals and started a little slower than the Dutch in the semifinals, but did not give up and with determination, they were able to pull through and managed to get their spot in the finals. 

For Weidemann, this is her third medal of Beijing 2022, adding to the silver she won in the 5000m and her bronze in the 3000m. She is Canada’s first triple medallist of the Games and is the second Canadian to ever to collect a set of gold, silver, and bronze medals at one edition of the Winter Games. 

Another accomplishment we need to highlight is our TEAM CANADA Women’s Hockey team taking home the gold. They celebrated a 3-2 win over the United States in the finals. Even with stiff competition each Games, this marks Canada’s fifth gold in women’s hockey at the Olympic Games. 

 Shout out to Captain Marie-Philip Poulin who scored twice to lead Canada to their 3-2 win. Not only was Poulin a star, the goalie, Ann- Renee Desbiens, stopped 38 of 40 shots! Congratulations to this team, we are sure this was quite the celebration.

 

Fun Fact: Ever since women’s hockey was added to the Olympic program in 1998, Canada and the United Sates have met in six of the seven gold metal matches. During the 2002 USA vs Canada ice hockey match for women’s gold, Canada won. However, at the World Championships, the rivalry has recently been dominated by the USA who have won 7 of the last 9 World Championships. United States has won 4 championships in a row. The United States lost to Team Canada 2-1 while outshooting the Canadians 45-23 in a group stage matchup in the 2018 Olympic games.

Main Image: Team celebrates gold medal in the team pursuit at Beijing 2022. Photo by: Andrew Lehodynski/COC