Ivanie Blondin


Ivanie Blondin is a Canadian speed skater. She primarily skates in the long distances of 3000 m, 5000 m, as well as the mass start event. Blondin won a silver medal in the mass start event at the 2015 World Single Distance Speed Skating Championships and a gold medal in the same event at the 2020 World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships. She also won the silver medal at the 2020 World Allround Speed Skating Championships.

Career

She began her career competing in short track speed skating while a youth in the Gloucester Concordes skating club. She competed there with fellow Olympian Vincent De Haître to whom she says she feels like an older sister towards. After Blondin failed to qualify in short track for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver she nearly quit sport. Mike Rivet, her coach in Gloucester, convinced her to switch to long track, a decision which she says "I was ready to quit skating because I was just so discouraged and disappointed with it. I think was the best decision I could have ever made." As a result, Blondin represented Canada in both the long distance events at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi as well as the team pursuit event.
Blondin won her first major competitive medal when she placed second in the mass start event at the 2015 World Single Distance Championships. After the race she said "I would have preferred the gold medal, but finishing first at this stage of my career remains a big accomplishment for me, so I'm super pumped with second place. I'm ecstatic with the result, which follows a fantastic season."

2018 Olympics

After results from the 2017–18 ISU Speed Skating World Cup, Blondin pre-qualified for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. She competed in the 3000 m, 5000 m, mass start, and team relay events.
In 2020, she won the mass start event gold medal at the 2020 World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships at the Utah Olympic Oval in Salt Lake City, United States. This was followed up with the silver medal at the World Allround Speed Skating Championships in March. She was the first Canadian woman to reach the overall podium at that event since 2012, and only the fifth since the event started in 1936..

Personal records

She is currently in 5th position in the adelskalender.