(Calgary) On his phone, Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu refreshed the page of the International Skating Federation’s website with a certain feverishness.
He was confident in his calculations, but was eager to get official confirmation. The stake: the assurance of a first participation in the Olympic Games.
At 29 years old. After a 20-year career marked by ups and downs, including a three-year break from sports in 2012. Exhausted, a little lost and sickened by the training regime to which he was subjected, this former great junior prospect in skating of short and long track speed had taken his backpack to go around the world.
The original Sherbrooke resident resumed training in Quebec in 2015, sparked by the mass start, a new long track event inaugurated at the 2018 Olympic Games.
It was therefore only logical that he obtained his qualification for Beijing in this discipline. But to achieve this, Gélinas-Beaulieu was hot on Saturday, the second day of the World Cup in Calgary.
In the semifinals, he was struck down by an Austrian rival who fell alongside him with just over two laps to go. He believed his day was lost before a complaint from his coaches guaranteed him a repechage for the final, a rare scenario in this race that he himself was unaware of.
For the final, the mission was clear: stick to his compatriot Jordan Belchos, with whom he was competing for the only Olympic ticket available to Canada. The second will be put at stake at the selections of Quebec at the end of the month.
Before the start, Gélinas-Beaulieu had a 14-point priority over Belchos in the World Cup standings. With the Quebecer glued to him, the Ontarian tried to sneak into the peloton. Failing to achieve this, he nevertheless acquired the last available point in the final intermediate sprint.
For Gélinas-Beaulieu, all that remained was to get into the top eight in the final sprint. After crossing the line in the seventh row, he raised his arms, convinced that he had accomplished his mission. By slipping into the next U-turn, he put his hands on her face, overcome by “big emotions”.
I celebrated strongly after my race, but I had a little hesitation when I sat down again on the benches… With my calculations and everything that I have read and reread on the bulletin, my place is preselected for the Games Olympic. It is not confirmed, I touch wood, but I do not know where there is!
Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu
Officials were slow to release the results, but they corroborated Gélinas-Beaulieu’s impression. With his intermediate sprint point, Belchos was awarded eighth place in the final, a place ahead of his compatriot. In the end, he only took back four points, not enough to erase his cumulative deficit in the World Cup.
“It’s huge,” said the lucky winner for Beijing, a qualification that remains to be formalized. “I was 9, watching the Olympics in Salt Lake City and dreaming. I started sports because of it. I also came back to sports because of it. When I saw the mass start, which began as a discipline, I was thrilled. I had butterflies in my stomach just looking at him. I said to myself: imagine that I go back to the long track and that I do this discipline that looks like me. I am there in my natural element. ”
Multiple medalist at the World Juniors in short and long track, the former film student thought he had a chance to qualify for the mass start for the 2018 Games, but a fall during the selections destroyed his chances.
Two years later, Gélinas-Beaulieu confirmed his enormous potential by winning bronze at the World Championships in Salt Lake City. He also finished ninth in the 1,000m and seventh in the 1,500m.
During the pandemic last winter, he decided not to go to the Dutch bubble to play two parts of the World Cup and the Worlds. Suffering from asthma since childhood, he preferred not to take risks. He focused on training, his great passion.
At the last Canadian Championships in October, he suffered from anxiety attacks, an illness that has been hanging over him for years. He tackled it head-on and opened up about it publicly recently, which relieved him. On the last day, he won the mass start.
At the first three World Cups, he struggled, recording results below expectations in his three distances.
“I find my legs more and more, he rejoiced, however, on Saturday. I am confident coming back to train with us. If I have this prequalification, I have a lighter head. My goal will be to add distances for the Olympics. Maybe do the 1000m, the 1500m, the team pursuit. At least I know my place is going to be secured. ”
Gélinas-Beaulieu believes he has “a very big potential for a medal” at the mass start in Beijing. One thing is certain, he will align himself with the selections of Quebec even if the ticket is acquired. “I have so much fun doing this distance! ”
If he deems it necessary, he will try to harden the race as much as possible to ensure that a skater who has come out of nowhere does not come and take second place from Canada. This should favor Belchos, a long distance specialist with whom he would like to compete in the Games as a teammate, in a totally different context than in Calgary.