For Ivanie Blondin, the Ottawa-born, two-time Winter Olympic Gold medalist, it’s been a life of game-changing decisions: Figure skating or speed skating? Professional sports or the veterinary life? Montreal, her adopted home, or Calgary, her current base?
Borrowing from both of her athletic specialties—short track speed skating, which she calls reactive and tactical, and the long track variety, which she prizes for its premiums on vision and control—she’s been consistently able to make the right choices, adapt appropriately, and find unprecedented success and great personal satisfaction.
Blondin, who attended École secondaire catholique Garneau and skated with the Gloucester Concordes skating club, first hit the ice at the age of two, on busy neighborhood rinks that became her second home. “I was always at the rink or outside being active,” she recounts. “It was such a strong skating community. It shaped everything.”
While she played hockey and grew serious about figure skating, it was the switch to speed skating that truly instilled a sense of competence and comfort. “When I was about six, my figure skating coach suggested I try speed skating, mostly because I wasn’t very graceful but I loved to go fast.”
While Blondin grew at ease with going professional, she suffered serious reservations about abandoning her first love: working with animals. “That was a tough one,” she admits. “I’ve always loved animals and seriously considered becoming a vet. But my skating career took off before I ever really had to make that decision: I qualified for Junior Worlds at 14 and was racing World Cups by 15.”
Soon, Blondin was on her way to the Vancouver Olympics in 2010…or so she thought. When she failed to qualify, her world shattered like thin ice. “That one hurt a lot,” Blondin confesses. “It was one of the lowest points in my career. I definitely questioned whether or not this was still the right path for me. But in hindsight,” she says, changing tack, “it also forced a really important change. It pushed me toward long track. That transition ended up opening a completely new chapter for me. So, as difficult as it was at the time, it became a turning point.”
A turning point that sounds a lot easier than it actually proved.
“It’s a completely different style,” she explains. “More patience, more racing against the clock instead of directly against other skaters—but it ended up suiting me really well, especially physically. The training was a big adjustment, too. The sessions were longer. It took time for my body to get used to it. But it’s also much more open and adaptive. That really gave me the freedom I needed to develop and really succeed in sport.”
It also necessitated a move from Montreal, where she had trained for short track, to Calgary, home of Canada’s top long track facility. “Thankfully,” she says, “I’ve always been more of a country girl, so Calgary actually suited me better in that sense. From day one, it felt like home.”
It’s still home today, where, at 36, she bicycles with an American pro team, is renovating her home with fellow athlete and husband Konrad Nagy, and is still basking in the adoration she enjoyed in Beijing in 2022, winning Gold in women’s team pursuit, then this past February, when she repeated that feat in Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo.
“Both occasions were special in different ways. 2022 was that breakthrough moment—it was everything I had worked for. The more recent one feels different—more appreciation, more perspective. You don’t take it for granted.”
“Beijing was also such a unique experience. The 2022 Winter Olympics, with all of those COVID protocols, felt like a mix between a reality TV show and a horror movie—it was intense and surreal. This year, it was more traditional. Plus, I also knew it was my last Games, so I really wanted to enjoy it first. I trusted that the competitiveness would come naturally, and it did. Defending that gold medal title was pretty insane and a moment I will cherish forever.”
Another object of her undying appreciation is for her loyal, expansive fanbase in Ottawa. “The support from back home has always meant so much to me,” Blondin beams, breaking out into her iconic, mile-wide smile. “Never giving up is what ultimately brought me those medals, but I know I wouldn’t have been able to push through the tough moments without the community I had behind me. That support made all the difference.”
By Dan Lalande, Photography by Sean Sisk
