Canadian speedskater Valérie Maltais earns 1,500-metre bronze for third medal

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This article was published 20/02/2026 (213 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MILAN – Speedskater Valérie Maltais absorbed a suggestion from her mental performance coach Jean-Francois Menard after she’d achieved her heart’s desire of winning an Olympic medal in an individual event.

“‘You were aiming for an individual medal. How about you’re aiming for individual medals?'” Maltais recalled his words, with emphasis on the plural.

The 35-year-old from La Baie, Que., earned an unexpected bronze Friday in the women’s 1,500 metres for her third medal of the Milan Cortina Games.

“This is my first 1,500-metre medal,” Maltais said. “It’s a great surprise today.”

A podium in an individual event was a hard target for Maltais upon arrival in her fifth Olympic Games.

Her bronze in the 3,000 metres, Canada’s first medal of the Games, checked that box.

Maltais, Ivanie Blondin and Isabelle Weidemann then repeated as Olympic champions in women’s team pursuit Wednesday.

Her bonus bronze Friday makes for a Maltais medal haul in Milan.

Skating in the 10th pairing Friday, she laid down one minute 54.40 seconds for the time to beat.

Norway’s Ragne Wiklund did in 1:54.15, which was then bested by Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong of the Netherlands in 1:54.09.

The three women were watchful, however, of the final pairing featuring Japan’s Miho Takagi.

The 2022 silver medallist threatened the podium with her interval times, but faded on the final lap.

“When I saw that she was slowing down, I was with Ragne, and we were like tapping on each other’s legs like ‘whoa!'” Maltais said. “My heart was pumping hard out of my chest.”

Maltais messaged her husband Jordan Belchos, a 2018 Olympian in speedskating, at home in Quebec while she waited for the last pairs to skate.

“I was texting with my husband. I said, ‘I think I’m going to be three or four here’, and he said, ‘Yeah, that would be insane,'” Maltais said.

Maltais has historically treated the 1,500 as a training race for the 3k.

“I’ve been skating really good and really powerful into the ice and keeping my position,” she said. “It’s a race that I’ve had a hard time finding the right gear and today I found patience

“I wasn’t afraid today to do my best and see, and if it doesn’t work, it just doesn’t work. But because I feel so good physically, I’m just excited to go to the line and I’m ready to hurt. It’s fun.”

Maltais said she barely slept the night after her bronze in the 3k. Because her race schedule spans the entire Winter Olympics, she’s tried to be diligent about recovery, hydration and nutrition.

“I never checked out after my 3,000 or after the gold medal,” she said.

She produced Canada’s fourth speedskating medal in Milan. Laurent Dubreuil was a bronze medallist in the men’s 500 metres.

Cindy Klassen holds the record for the most speedskating medals by a Canadian in a single Winter Olympics with five, including one gold, in 2006.

Maltais and Blondin are contenders in Saturday’s mass start that concludes Olympic speedskating.

Both Canadians come from a short track background, which lends itself to mass start’s jockeying and jostling for position in a 16-lap, head-to-head race that includes intermediate sprints for points.

“I’m going for a medal tomorrow. Let’s keep it rolling,” Maltais said.

“It’s everyone’s race. It’s completely different. It’s not the strongest athlete who will win, it’s the smartest, the one who’s going to be more patient, the one who’s going to have to be bold, maybe an attack.

“We’re at the Olympics. People will go all-in or just fail.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 20, 2026.