Charles Hamelin pursued by young short track speed skaters
Olympic champion coming to terms with his role as leader
Canadian short track speed skaters Charles Hamelin and Samuel Girard are 12 years apart in age, but were separated by just five hundredths of a second when they competed in the 1,000 metres at the ISU World Cup event Sunday in Montreal.
The win added to Hamelin's already extensive collection: four Olympic medals, including three gold, and 20 world championship medals, among others.
But a podium finish for Girard, who is in the early phases of his career, is still a relatively new occurrence. Though Saturday's result was Girard's second medal on the World Cup circuit (he also has a bronze), Hamelin knows he's the type of skater he needs to watch out for.
"One of my goals as the leader of the team is to bring the young kids up and make sure that they can reach finals and win medals," Hamelin, 31, told CBC Sports before the start of the season. "They always push me. I want to stay on top, and they want to beat me. I want to do things better so that I can stay on top."
The veterans are being pushed by the young ones as opposed to pulling them along, and they know that with such a strong crop of athletes on the rise, their spots on the team aren't as secure.
Charle Cournoyer, 24, was the youngest member of Canada's short track team when he competed at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, where he won bronze in the 500.
"The young skaters are going to increase the fear in the older guys, like 'I may lose my spot to this guy', that's why they train harder," said Cournoyer, who won silver in the 500 on Sunday in Montreal. "We have a lot of young skaters like Sam [Girard] that are performing really well, and it's really pumping us to train harder and harder to keep our spot."
"We see Charles come back every year with good results," said Girard. "He's a good guy with us in training, and he shares a lot of good points with us.
"Charles works hard every year. I know Charles is on top right now, but he always continues to learn to try to be better."
Hamelin and Girard will face each other again on Saturday and Sunday at the second World Cup race of the season, in Toronto. Those races, too, could be symbolic of what is yet to come in the battle between the vets and the young ones on the national men's team.
"I think in the next few years the team will be really strong, one of the strongest we can have," says Hamelin. "The boys are closer in strength compared to last year. It's fun, and it brings the team to a level that it's never been at before."