Samuel Girard of Ferland-et-Boileau, Quebec won the gold medal for Canada in the men’s 1000 metres at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang on Saturday. For Canada it was their fifth gold medal and 15th medal overall.
Girard posted a winning time of 1:24.650 in the A Final. John-Henry Krueger of the United States won the silver medal with a time of 1:24.864. Yi-Ra Seo of South Korea won the bronze medal with a time of 1:31.619.
Girard easily reached the podium. In the latter stages if the men’s 1000 metre final, there was a crash between Seo, Hyo-jun Lim of South Korea and Sandor Liu Shaolin of Hungary. Seo finished third, but was 6.969 seconds faster than Seo and 8.662 seconds faster than Lim, who was in fourth place. Shaolin meanwhile was penalized for the incident behind Girard and Krueger.
On an interesting note Girard almost did not advance to the A Final. He only advanced after it was ruled that his Canadian teammate and fellow Olympic gold medalist Charles Hamelin had bumped him during the semi-final, Hamelin was penalized, Girard advanced and then won gold in the A Final.
Girard becomes the first Canadian man to win the gold medal in the men’s 1000 metre short track speed skating event at the Olympic Winter Games. Frederic Blackburn of Chicoutimi, Quebec won the silver medal at the 1992 Olympic Winter Games in Albertville, Marc Gagnon of Chicoutimi, Quebec won the bronze medal at the 1994 Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer, Eric Bedard of Sainte-Thecle, Quebec won the bronze medal at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano and Mathieu Turcotte of Sherbrooke, Quebec won the bronze medal at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City.
