Ones to Watch

CLARA HUGHES
LONG TRACK SPEED SKATING

AGE: 37
HOMETOWN: Winnipeg, Man.
ON NATIONAL TEAM SINCE: 2001

Many Canadians will recall watching Clara Hughes go for Olympic gold at the 5,000m long track speeding skating event in 2006. To hear her tell it in her own words perfectly recaptures the thrill of the race.

“I remember when I got to the five-laps-to-go point, I had such pain in my legs and in my lungs and I just thought, ‘Oh, I want this to be over’ for a split second’ — and then I said, “No you don’t want this to be over, this is the time to fight,’ she recalls. “I just remember telling myself every stride to get lower and to make my stride longer and to make it stronger.”

Knowing that her strength was in the finish of the race, Hughes called upon every ounce of remaining energy. When she crossed the finish line and saw she’d broken seven minutes — the fastest time before her race — she knew she’d won. “I just remember screaming with joy,” she says. “And it was just elation and exhaustion and the mixture of, I think, every emotion a human being can feel. Maybe except sadness — I definitely wasn’t sad!”

Hughes’ golden moment in Turin highlights an athletic career that has spanned both the cycling and speed skating worlds with unprecedented success. No one else can say they’ve won 18 Canadian national cycling titles and four medals in the 5000m at the long track speed skating World Single Distance Championships. Hughes is also the only athlete in Olympic history to win multiple medals at both the Summer and Winter Games.

Still, Hughes says sometimes it’s not always the races you win that mean the most. “I’ve had quite a few races where I didn’t even make the podium [and] I’ll never forget them. I think they’ve really shaped who I am as an athlete and as a person in the sense of having made me look really, really deep inside of myself and found things that I didn’t even know were there.”

Even after her countless triumphs, Hughes says the sport continues to offer challenges. An ongoing frustration for the skater is what she calls “this elusive perfect technique that once in awhile comes out in me, but most of the time I’m just kind of trying to find it. When she does, “it feels like the movement happens through me — it’s just the most beautiful feeling.”

Hughes will be part of a strong contingent of Canadian speed skaters landing in Vancouver come February. “We have so much depth on the Canadian team that it’s actually really hard to even just make the team. I think it brings out the best in all of the athletes and keeps us competitive amongst ourselves.”

Following her gold-medal performance in 2006, Hughes donated $10,000 to Right To Play, a humanitarian organization that uses sports as development tools for children in underprivileged areas of the world, and has traveled to Africa and the Middle East with the organization. She has also worked with the Nature Conservancy of Canada as a spokesperson for their campaign to protect the Sutton Mountain Range in Quebec.

In her final Olympic season, Hughes simply wants to make the most out of every day. “I think I’ve gone about every season I’ve had as an athlete as if it’s my last,” she says. “I just want to be in the moment and prepare for the race of my life.”

CHARLES HAMELIN
SHORT TRACK SPEED SKATING

AGE: 25
HOMETOWN: Levis, Que.
ON NATIONAL TEAM SINCE: 2004

For Charles Hamelin, his second Olympic Games will be a full-fledged family affair.

Both the 2006 Turin silver medallist and his younger brother, François, have been named to the Canadian short track speed skating team, an achievement the older Hamelin brother called “the best feeling” of his life.

“We have been skating together for pretty much all our career so far,” says Hamelin. The brothers could often be found on the ice together during intensive twice-a-day, six-days-a-week training sessions this summer.

The family ties don’t end there. The Hamelins’ father, Yves, is the national team’s program director. And Charles’ girlfriend, junior world champion short-tracker Marianne St-Gelais, will also be competing in Vancouver.

Looking back at Turin, Hamelin says, “At that point of my career, it was a surprise for me to be able to go to the Olympics.” He more than proved he belonged there, winning silver in the men’s relay event and placing fourth in the 1,500m.

Since then, Hamelin has earned three individual world championship titles. In January he set a new world record in Montreal by skating the 1,000m in one minute, 23.43 seconds.

Hamelin has competed in various races in his home province of Quebec and can attest to the power of hometown support. “The arena is always packed and everyone is cheering for us… I feel like I have wings on the ice.”