Olympic medallist Isabelle Weidemann of Canada celebrates during the medal ceremony for the women's 5,000-meters speedskating at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Friday, Feb. 11, 2022, in Beijing. She won silver.Jae C. Hong/The Associated Press
Isabelle Weidemann, a triple medal winner in long-track speed skating at the Beijing Winter Olympics, will be Canada’s flag-bearer at Sunday’s closing ceremony.
In her second Olympics, the 26-year-old from Ottawa earned a medal of each shade in Beijing. She took bronze in the 3,000 metres, silver in the 5,000 metres, and gold with Ivanie Blondin and Valérie Maltais in the team pursuit.
“I never expected to be coming home with three medals, let alone have that honour of holding the flag,” said Weidemann. “I’m at such a loss of words to kind of describe the last two weeks. I feel like I’m dreaming a little bit. I came into these Olympics thinking I was going to fight for one medal.”
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Her bronze was the first of 26 medals that Canada earned at the Beijing Olympics.
It was another well-known Canadian medalist in long track who asked Weidemann to carry the flag: chef de mission Catriona Le May Doan, two-time Olympic champion.
Weidemann, who is also doing a natural science degree at the University of Calgary, was juggling her course work during her time at these Olympics. Nearly done her degree, she chose to keep chugging through the school work instead of taking a semester off for the Games. While winning three medals in Beijing, she was also working on a group project and learning to code.
Canada's gold-medal winners, Ivanie Blondin, Isabelle Weidemann and Valérie Maltais, celebrate during a medal ceremony for the speed skating women's team pursuit at the Beijing Winter Olympics on Feb. 15, 2022.Jae C. Hong/The Associated Press
“At the Olympics, you spend so much downtime as you kind of ramp into competing and it’s very easy to kind of get it into your head,” said Weidemann. “So I use school often to kind of distract me and to pull me out of that. Yeah, it was a little bit crazy, but I don’t regret it.
With the strict COVID-19 protocols in place inside the “closed loop” at the Beijing Games, some athletes who finished competing have already left for home, but the Canadian Olympic Committee said approximately 200 Canadian Games participants are to walk in the closing ceremony, Sunday night in Beijing.
David Shoemaker, chief executive officer of the Canadian Olympic Committee, added that many athletes who did stay went to watch Canadians compete in other sports, even travelled to the other competition hubs. (There were three at these Games: Beijing, Zhangjiakou and Yanqing.)
“I felt that made a huge difference in some venues,” said Shoemaker. “There was actually a vibe, and if you were in Tokyo, the vibe was lacking. So it’s really nice to feel the energy. And I know our athletes said from their perspective, it felt like they were there was more support for Team Canada than there was for any other nation here.”
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Rachel Brady