Canada's Dubreuil wins silver in men's 1,000m speed skating at Beijing Games
CBC
Canadian speed skater Laurent Dubreuil won his first Olympic medal on Friday at the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games.
Te Levis, Que., native won silver in the men's 1,000-metres at Beijing 2022, earning Canada's 24th medal of the Games.
The 29-year-old skated to a time of one minute 8.32 seconds in the final pair to earn Canada's first medal in the event since Denny Morrison at Sochi 2014.
He shared the podium with Thomas Krol of the Netherlands, who added a gold medal to his silver in the 1,500m, and Norway's Haavard Holmefjord Lorenzen, who won bronze, 16-hundredths of a second back of Dubreuil.
WATCH | Laurent Dubreuil skates to silver on Friday:
"I thought I had a good chance to medal this week, more so in the 500m and to finish fourth in the 500 by three- hundredths and to have a really tough week, to get over it and show up today and win a medal is amazing," Dubreuil said.
"I was happy in life before the last two weeks, and I didn't have an Olympic medal before today, so it's just the best sporting moment of my life, maybe — but it's a bit of a bonus on top of my happy life so far."
Coming into the Beijing Games as the reigning world champion in the 500m distance, Dubreuil was a favourite in the event. After missing the podium in it by just 0.03 on Saturday he rebounded to skate one of the fastest 1,000m races of his career.
WATCH | Debreuil reacts after winning 1,000m silver:
Dubreuil worked his way through the race, skating alongside Kai Verbij of the Netherlands until the Dutch skater pulled up after an awkward moment.
Competitors are required to change lanes after each lap, and the skater who is coming from outside to inside has the right of way. Verbij followed the rules, letting Dubreuil race ahead of him, even though it cost him a chance at the podium.
"I didn't have enough speed to go before him at the lane change. I just had to quit, because otherwise I would have been disqualified and probably messed up his race," Verbij told Reuters. "It's pretty sad and I'm pretty disappointed that it happened at the Olympics, but yeah. Someone has to lose I guess.
"It's tough to do that in an Olympic race," Dubreuil said. "I can't say thank you enough for him, that was a really professional and classy move to do," he said.
The Canadian men's speed skaters now look toward the mass start — the final event of their Games — at 2:45 a.m. ET on Saturday.
