Beijing 2022 | Kim Boutin, alone standing and bronze medal

(Beijing) A crash, two crashes, three crashes, a penalty… This promising evening for the Canadian short track skating team was about to turn into a disaster. But no, Kim Boutin, the only Canadian standing, saved the day, the honor and the place on the podium.

It was she who asked the first question to the journalists.

” How are you ? »

We laughed.

She, who left PyeongChang with three medals and is second in the World Cup in the 500m this season, did not disappoint with her bronze medal.

After all these falls, she admits that she did not want to risk anything, and only to protect her third place, at the end of this race-sprint.

But anyway, with tacticians in front of her like the Italian Arianna Fontana (gold over the distance for her second Olympic Games in a row, and medalist at the fifth Games) and the Dutch Suzanne Schulting, there was simply not the square.

It was a “fair” podium, which brought together the three best in the world, she conceded.

Above all, there will be no controversy for this bronze. In 2018, Boutin was overwhelmed with hate messages and threats after the disqualification of a Korean woman in the 1000m. Local police had opened an investigation and offered to file criminal charges against two men. Boutin had preferred to send them a letter…

The months and year that followed were difficult. She had to overcome a form of post-traumatic shock and regain the lost pleasure of training – even before COVID.

She went into exile for a time in the Netherlands to train. She continued her studies in special education. She found a new balance off the ice, in painting, with the children.

And the successes came back.

She talks about the present moment and the importance of being “in symbiosis with the ice”. In short, it is a revitalized and zen Kim Boutin who showed up in Beijing.

A “great Olympic comeback” of which she is “very proud”, especially since the race was difficult. But being overtaken by two athletes that she “admires enormously”, it suits her, it suits her very well.

Heartbreaking for Dion

Pascal Dion, who leads the World Cup in the 1000m, simply lost his footing when his skate went from the wet to the dry portion of the ice. The ice “cracked” and it was over. Stuff that happens in this job where you are always a millimeter from the accident.

“It’s a bit heartbreaking, but there are still two distances and chances to recover”.

Jordan Pierre-Gilles, penalized for overtaking a little too tight, admitted that he could have “prepared him better” and that, yes, “it sucks”. But with a smirk, he added that his Chinese opponent deftly managed to “seek contact”, only to appear unbalanced by him. “He played a little comedy,” he opined, while acknowledging that the referees did not have it easy to decide between these frictional situations.

Clearly, it plays harder at the Olympics, he said. “Everyone goes there for the podium”, and that explains the falls, the controversies, the contacts and the disqualifications.

I don’t know if he could have “prepared it better”, as he says, but he tried, played it on the razor’s edge, and I tell you that the races will never be flat with Pierre-Gilles.

“I’ve only been on the circuit for a year and a half, so I’m still learning”.

“Kim’s medal gives the whole team a boost,” said Alyson Charles, also penalized.

After a mixed relay which ended in a fall, it will not be a refusal for the future.

Everyone, for the future, would like to hear a little less mattress noise and referee decisions…