Weekend recap: Blondin leads Canada's medal winners

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Speed skater Ivanie Blondin captured a complete set of medals, figure skaters Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha clinched a spot in the Grand Prix Final, and Brooke Henderson finished the golf season with a big payday. Here's a look at the top performances by Canada's Olympic athletes over the weekend:

Speed skating: Ivanie Blondin starts strong

Canada's most decorated active skater won a medal of each colour as she accounted for three of Canada's four podium appearances at the long track World Cup season opener in Japan. Blondin took gold in the women's 3,000 metres, silver in the mass start and teamed with Yankun Zhao for a bronze in the mixed relay. Laurent Dubreuil picked up a silver in the men's 500m.

Blondin's gold in the 3,000 marked her first World Cup victory in an individual race other than the mass start (her signature event) in five years. The mixed relay bronze was Canada's first-ever medal in the discipline, which joined the World Cup program last season. It was also the first World Cup medal for the 20-year-old Zhao.

Last season, Canada's long track skaters averaged about four medals per World Cup stop and went on to win a national-record 10 medals at the single distances world championships in Calgary.

The World Cup tour continues this Friday through Sunday in Beijing.

Figure skating: Lajoie and Lagha grab a spot in the Grand Prix Final

Ice dancers Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha took silver while Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud earned the pairs bronze on Saturday at the Cup of China, the final regular stop on the Grand Prix of Figure Skating tour.

Lajoie and Lagha were also the runners-up at Skate Canada International in October, giving them enough points to join ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier and reigning pairs world champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps at next month's Grand Prix Final in France.

Pereira and Michaud did not qualify for the Final, and no Canadians made it in the individual men's or women's events.

Golf: Brooke Henderson closes the year with a nice payday

The three-time Olympian earned just shy of $120,000 US for tying for eighth place at the LPGA's season-ending Tour Championship in Naples, Fla., on Sunday. Henderson finished nine shots behind Thailand's Jeeno Thitikul, who went eagle-birdie on the final two holes to beat American Angel Yin by one shot.

Thitikul, 21, pocketed $4 million for the victory — the biggest winner's prize in women's golf history.

Other Canadian results:

* Reigning women's skeleton world champion Hallie Clarke finished seventh in Saturday's World Cup race in Beijing. The 20-year-old was sixth and 14th in the season openers a week earlier in South Korea.

* 2023 ski jumping world champion Alexandria Loutitt began a new World Cup season by finishing eighth and 10th in a pair of women's large hill events in Lillehammer. Abigail Strate, who won an Olympic team bronze alongside Loutitt in 2022, placed ninth and 18th.

* Laurence St-Germain finished 11th in Saturday's women's slalom in Austria as American star Mikaela Shiffrin picked up her record-extending 99th career World Cup win. Shiffrin will go for No. 100 later this week in Vermont.

* Freestyle skiers Olivia Asselin and Megan Oldham were eighth and ninth, respectively, in the women's slopestyle World Cup opener in Austria. Max Moffatt finished 12th in the men's competition.