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Ted-Jan Bloemen has a lot to overcome in the final season of his career.
The 39-year-old, who won Olympic gold and silver in speed skating for Canada in 2018, wants to finish with no regrets.
“You do a lot of things last time and you want to succeed, right?” he said Friday at the Olympic Oval in Calgary. “Just fix them one more time and give them everything you've got.”
The veteran athlete did it on the first of three days of World Cup racing.
Bloemen broke Sven Kramer's 18-year-old oval record in the men's 5000m and let out a roar of emotion as he crossed the finish line.
However, his record did not last long as it was broken by Norway's Sander Eitrem and then winner Casey Dawson of the USA, leaving Bloemen in third place.
Ted-Jan Bloemen of Canada finishes third in the men's 5000m final at the World Cup of Speed Skating in Calgary with a time of 6:02.26.
“It was a pretty epic record. To go faster than I did in the same place means a lot to me,” Blumen said.
“I wasn’t sure I could win, but I was really excited to show that you know I’m out there and in the fight.”
Dawson finished in 6:01.84, two hundredths of a second faster than Eitrem and 0.42 seconds ahead of Bloemen.
The Dutch-Canadian, who emigrated from the Netherlands to Canada in 2014, won the men's 10,000m and was second in the 5k at the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Last season, Bloemen failed to make all the world championship and world championship podiums.
“Last season was difficult. I changed my training a little bit over the summer and worked really, really hard to get back into medal contention,” Blumen said.
“So far this season I haven’t had any races where I could really prove it. I'm back. I knew this from training. I knew I was back, but I wanted it so bad, I wanted to prove it. Today I did it.”
Flowers and Valerie The Maltese from La Baie, Que., ended a 2025 drought of sorts for the host team in Calgary.
The Canadians were stripped of individual medals in January at the previous world championships at the Olympic Oval.
Canada's Ted-Jan Bloemen talks about finishing third in the men's 5000m final at the World Speed Skating Championships in Calgary.
The Maltese set a personal record
Malthe won bronze in the women's 3000m a week after winning silver at the season opener in Salt Lake City, but she was faster on Friday.
The 35-year-old held off a late charge from Canadian teammate Isabelle Weidemann in their pairing to clock a personal best time of 3:56.45. Weidemann was two tenths of a second back in fourth.
The Maltese finished behind Joy Boehne of the Netherlands (3:54.42) and Ragne Viklund of Norway (3:55.25).
Valerie Malthe of La Baie, Quebec, finishes third in the women's 3000m final at the World Speed Skating Championships in Calgary with a personal best time of 3:56.45. Ottawa's Isabelle Weidemann narrowly missed out on the podium with a fourth-place finish.
“I had some expectations for myself and wanted to be on the podium again, but my focus was back on my process and how I wanted to compete in this race,” Maltes said.
“I had a couple with Isabelle. She gets stronger at the end and I wanted to make sure I still had some energy at the end to be able to fight, which is what I did. It's really good.”
Malthe won her fourth World Cup medal to start the season after silver in the 3km, silver in the mass start and silver in the team pursuit with Weidemann and Ivanie Blondin in Salt Lake City.
The trio will compete in the team pursuit on Sunday when Malta and Blondin also compete in the women's mass start.
Watch live coverage of the Long Course World Cup season on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem. Full broadcast schedule is available available here.
Valerie Malthe of La Baie, Quebec, reflects on winning bronze in the women's 3000m final at the World Cup of Speed Skating in Calgary.
American speed skating star Jordan Stoltz raced in the men's 1000m against Dutch arch-rival Jenning De Boo.
Stolz, 21, a two-time world champion in the 500m, 1000m and 1500m, was second to De Boo for two laps before a late surge to victory.
“I was tired on the last lap, but I was still able to beat him,” Stolz said. “I put all my power into the ice. I knew a lot could happen on the last lap. In the last 50 meters I was able to pass him, so that was good.”
The Dutch finished first to fourth in the women's 1000m, with Femke Kok the winner.
