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March 5, 2026 • Volume 39, No. 21
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LOCALLY OWNED
Next edition March 19
L’édition de cette semaine à l’intérieur...
Orléans Olympians successfully defend speed skating gold By Fred Sherwin The Orléans Star
Ivanie Blondin, centre, and Isabelle Weidemann, right, are flanked by teammate Valérie Maltais after repeating as gold medalists in the team pursuit event at this year’s Winter Olympics. FACEBOOK PHOTO
It is rare indeed for Olympic athletes to win a gold medal. It is rarer still for Olympic athletes to repeat their gold medal winning performance four years later. Orléans Olympians Isabelle Weidemann and Ivanie Blondin accomplished just that at the recent Winter Olympics in MilanoCortina, Italy, where they and teammate Valerie Maltais won the women’s team pursuit event, successfully defending the gold medal they won in Beijing in 2022. The trio went into the final against the cofavourites from the Netherlands after easily defeating the United States by over four seconds in the semi-finals. The Netherlands had a tougher time of it in their semi-final, besting the team from Japan by
just a tenth of a second. In the gold medal showdown, Canada trailed the Netherlands for the first seven laps of the 12 lap race. They made their move on the eighth lap and never looked back, crossing the finish line by nearly a second ahead of the Dutch. This will likely be the final Olympics for the 35-year-old Blondin, who also won a silver medal in the mass start, giving four Olympic medals in total. At age 30, Weidemann could conceivably compete in the 2030 Olympics, which will take place in the French Alps, but that was the furthest thing from her mind as she celebrated her gold medal with her teammates. “I’m so proud of all the work that the three of us have done over the last four years,” said Weidemann. “We’re a very different team, I CONTINUED ON PAGE 2