Canadians have an edge at the speed skating world championships

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With home-ice advantage and several medal contenders on its roster, Canada looks poised for a strong showing at the World Speed Skating Single Distances Championships starting Thursday in Calgary.

As the name implies, this event determines the men's and women's world champions (and silver and bronze medallists) in each separate distance in long track speed skating. The allround world championships, where skaters compete for a unified title across multiple distances, take place next month in Germany.

The program for the single-distances world championships is nearly identical to the Olympics', where there are six individual events of varying lengths and a team pursuit for both men and women. The worlds add a team sprint event for each gender.

Last year in the Netherlands, Canada placed second in the standings with three gold (all in team events) and seven total medals. The host country dominated with 17 medals, including seven gold, showing that it remains the world's most powerful speed skating nation.

It'll be tough to catch the Dutch this week. But Canada could be in line for another big worlds with 19 skaters (including four medallists from the most recent Winter Olympics) set to compete on Calgary's Olympic Oval — the team's primary training base and the spiritual home of Canadian long track speed skating.

On this season's World Cup tour, which wrapped up earlier this month in Quebec City, Canada averaged close to four medals and one gold at each of the six stops — a good baseline for what to expect in Calgary. 

Canada's top medal contenders are:

Ivanie Blondin: The two-time women's mass start world champion took silver in her signature event at last year's worlds and the 2022 Olympics. Blondin excels in team events too: she's a reigning Olympic and world champion in the women's team pursuit along with Valérie Maltais and Isabelle Weidemann, and she also captured the women's team sprint world title last year with Brooklyn McDougall and Carolina Hiller. That gave Blondin a Canadian-high three medals at the worlds in the Netherlands, and four world titles for her career.

Valérie Maltais: The least-prominent member of Canada's Olympic and world-champion women's pursuit team parlayed her consistency into her first individual World Cup championship this season in the mass start. Though she didn't win any of the six races, Maltais reached the podium in three of them to beat out Blondin, the runner-up despite two victories. Maltais also finished third in the women's long distances standings, which combine 3,000m and 5,000m results, and helped Canada place second in the women's team pursuit after a run of four straight World Cup titles.

Isabelle Weidemann: The 6-foot-2 Ottawa native was Canada's most decorated speed skater at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, winning gold in the women's team pursuit, silver in the 5,000m and bronze in the 3,000. After missing the podium in her solo events at last year's world championships and then starting off slow this season, Weidemann skipped the two European stops in the middle of the World Cup circuit to prepare for the final stretch culminating with the worlds. She returned last month in Salt Lake City to help Canada win gold in the team pursuit, then placed fourth in the 3,000m at the tour finale in Quebec City.

Laurent Dubreuil: The 2022 Olympic silver medallist in the 1,000m was the only Canadian man to reach multiple podiums at last year's world championships, taking silver in the 500m and helping Canada to gold in the team sprint. Dubreuil placed second in the 500m World Cup standings this season and won the world title in speed skating's shortest distance in 2021.

Ted-Jan Bloemen: The 2018 Olympic champion in the men's 10,000m and silver medallist in the 5,000 keeps on rolling. Bloemen, 37, took bronze in the 10K at last year's worlds in the Netherlands — the country he was born and raised in and competed for until switching to Canada a decade ago. Bloemen finished second in the World Cup men's long distances standings (5,000m and 10,000m) after capping his season with a victory in the finale in Quebec.

How to watch:

You can see every race at the world championships in Calgary live on CBC Gem, CBCSports.ca and the CBC Sports app starting Thursday at 2:30 p.m. ET through the end of the meet on Sunday. Play-by-play and colour commentary will be supplied by CBC Sports' Signa Butler and Anastasia Bucsis, a former Olympic speed skater. Here's the full schedule of events.