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Valerie Malthe has found yet another piece of gear for her fifth Olympic Games.
The 35-year-old speed skater from La Baie, Que., opened the World Cup season with the fastest 3,000-meter run of her life, posting her best result at the distance, a silver medal, last week in Salt Lake City.
After another silver medal in the women's mass start on Saturday and helping Canada in the team pursuit on Sunday, Malta is hoping to carry that momentum into Friday's 3K in Calgary.
“I’m really excited to run another 3km. Here in Calgary, the ice will be fast again, the crowd will be good, and so I want to run the race the way I plan and feel like my body and everything else is technically and tactically aligned,” Maltais said Wednesday at the Olympic Oval on the University of Calgary campus.
“That was my goal last week as well. The focus is on execution.”
Calgary is the second of five World Cup stops this season. Malta is among 27 Canadians competing Friday through Sunday not only for medals but also for qualification for the February Olympics in Milan and Cortina, Italy.
Canadians have won 16 medals at six world championship events in the 2024-25 season, including two gold, eight silver and six bronze.
Maltes is the only Canadian speed skater to win Olympic medals in both short track and long track. In 2014, in Sochi, she won bronze in the short track relay.
After switching to the long course in 2019, Malta, Ivanie Blondin and Isabelle Weidemann won team pursuit gold in Beijing in 2022.
Malta will be among the few Canadian athletes at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia, who will still be competing in 2026.
This group includes hockey players Marie-Philip Poulin and Sidney Crosby, as well as ski jumper Mackenzie Boyd-Close. Mark Kennedy and Ben Hebert could join them if their men's curling team wins trials next week in Halifax.
“It's nice to have experience. That’s how I see it,” Maltes said.
“What allows me to still compete at my best, and honestly I think I'm at my peak now – my numbers show that – is because the training technology and the support we have around the athlete is so much better.
WATCH | Canadians won Olympic gold in Beijing:
Maltais, who married Olympic speed skater Jordan Belchos in 2024, says having access to a sports physiologist at Quebec's Intact Insurance Center de Glaces during off-season training has been a game-changer for her.
“We didn’t have a physiologist in Quebec for the previous two years,” she said. “That was one of the main things we brought in to better understand our body at 35. I don't have to train the same way as a 21-year-old.
“We didn't waste time with injuries, and for elite athletes sometimes it's hard not to get injured because we put so much stress on our body. I have a really good team around me. We always tried to take care of those small fires that sometimes broke out.”
Blondin, of Malta and Ottawa, who has won eight world championship medals in the mass start, will compete in that event, as well as in the team pursuit with Ottawa's Weidemann on Sunday.
After failing to make the World Championship podium and finish third at the World Championships last season, the trio used a new strategy: Weidemann stayed ahead for all six laps in Salt Lake City and did not change leaders.
“We needed to prove to ourselves that we can do it and that we still have what it takes to compete with the best teams because last year we really doubted it,” said Weidemann, who will race Malta in the 3km race on Friday.
Blondin, who finished fifth in the Salt Lake City mass start, is aiming for an individual podium finish on the national team's home ice in Calgary, but the 35-year-old is willing to compromise on his training to be ready for the Olympics.
“We are not looking to peak at these world championships. We kind of trained without necessarily slowing down for these races,” Blondin explained.
“The goal this year is the Olympic Games. That's when you want to peak.”
For complete information on when and how to watch speed skating this season, visit the CBC Sports broadcast schedule. by clicking here.
