Ivanie Blondin

Ivanie Blondin

Ivanie Blondin in 2013
Personal information
Born	(1990-04-02) April 2, 1990 Ottawa, Ontario[1]
Height	1.62 m (5 ft 4 in)
Weight	55 kg (121 lb)
Sport
Country	Canada
Sport	Speed skating
Medal record World Championships 2016 Kolomna Mass start 2015 Heerenveen Mass start 2017 Gangneung 5000 m

Ivanie Blondin (born April 2, 1990) is a Canadian speed skater. She primarily skates in the long distances of 3000 m, 5000 m, as well as the mass start event. Blondin won a silver medal at the 2015 World Single Distance Speed Skating Championships.^[2]

Career

She began her career competing in short track speed skating while a youth in the Gloucester Concordes skating club. She competed there with fellow Olympian Vincent De Haître to whom she says she feels like an older sister towards.^[3] After Blondin failed to qualify in short track for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver she nearly quit sport. Mike Rivet, her coach in Gloucester, convinced her to switch to long track, a decision which she says "I was ready to quit skating because I was just so discouraged and disappointed with it. I think (the switch) was the best decision I could have ever made."^[3] As a result, Blondin represented Canada in both the long distance events at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi as well as the team pursuit event.

Blondin won her first major competitive medal when she placed second in the mass start event at the 2015 World Single Distance Championships. After the race she said "I would have preferred the gold medal, but finishing first at this stage of my career remains a big accomplishment for me, so I'm super pumped with second place. I'm ecstatic with the result, which follows a fantastic season."^[2]

References