Canada's Bloemen misses podium in 10K title defence as Sweden's van der Poel sets world record

Reigning Olympic champion Ted-Jan Bloemen of Canada fell short of the podium in the men's 10,000 metres on Friday in Beijing.

Sweden's Nils van der Poel broke his own world record — at one point held by Bloemen — to win gold with a time of 12 minutes 30.74 seconds.

Dutch skater Patrick Roest took silver at 12:44.59, while Italy's Davide Ghiotto brought home bronze in 12:45.98.

Bloemen, meanwhile, appeared to struggle through the middle laps of the gruelling race, outwardly signalling at his coach and, at one point, shaking his head mid-stride. The time of 13:01.39 was good for eighth for the skater who entered Beijing ranked second in long distances.

WATCH | Bloemen 8th in 10K:

Fellow Canadian Graeme Fish, of Moose Jaw, Sask., who previously set the world record on Feb. 14, 2020 before van der Poel broke it exactly one year later, placed sixth in 12:58.80.

Bloemen, 35, was born in the Netherlands but resides in Calgary. He previously placed 10th in the 5,000m after badly fading in that race too.

While saying he had nothing against athletes from the Netherlands, the 25-year-old called the report a sign of "corruption" that needed to be investigated by the International Olympic Committee and the International Skating Union.

Dutch officials shrugged off the complaints.

WATCH | van der Poel breaks world record:

Bloemen is next scheduled to race in the team pursuit on Sunday. He told CBC Sports' Anastasia Bucsis that the mid-race signalling to his coach was about whether he should step out and save himself for the next event.

"But we wanted to finish the race which I think in the end was good because it showed a couple of fast lap times to maybe show my team pursuit, like, 'Guys, I'm still here, I'm still doing good,'" Bloemen said.

The Canadian had fallen to lap times in the mid-32 seconds, but finished with three consecutive 400-metre circles under 31 seconds.

He now has two days to recover in time for the team pursuit.

"I didn't want to hurt myself too much because it's in two days. It's ridiculous. Like we have a 10K and then we have to recover in two days to do the team pursuit? The countries that don't have men in the 10K, they have a huge advantage on us. It's really stupid," he said.

WATCH | Bloemen chats with CBC Sports after the race:

Bloemen said he missed around four weeks of training January with an illness, but didn't test positive for COVID-19.

"I think because I missed that training block that we planned there I'm just having trouble getting through those longer distances," he said.

Fish, meanwhile, had a confirmed case of the virus that forced him to miss two World Cup events leading into what was supposed to be the last-chance Olympic qualifiers in late December. The Omicron surge led to those events being cancelled.

WATCH | Fish races to 6th:

The 24-year-old skater made a full recovery and was nominated to the team for Beijing, where he said he was pleased with his Olympic debut.

He said it may have been the best 10K he's raced all season, though it was nine seconds short of his season best set at his lone World Cup race.

"It was pretty flat until the last four laps but obviously I had fun. It was super cool to be out there skating at the Olympics. It's been a dream of mine for a long time," he said.

And Fish left it all out on the track — literally. The Canadian was caught throwing up in the oval moments after crossing the finish line.

WATCH | Full replay of men's 10K: