Cindy Klassen

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Cindy Klassen
Personal information
Height1.72 m (5 ft 7+1⁄2 in)
Weight71 kg (157 lb; 11.2 st)
Websitewww.cindyklassen.com
Sport
Country Canada
SportSpeed skating
Medal record
Representing  Canada
Women's speed skating
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2006 Turin 1500 m
Silver medal – second place 2006 Turin Team pursuit
Silver medal – second place 2006 Turin 1000 m
Bronze medal – third place 2006 Turin 5000 m
Bronze medal – third place 2006 Turin 3000 m
Bronze medal – third place 2002 Salt Lake 3000 m
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2006 Calgary Allround
Gold medal – first place 2005 Inzell 1500 m
Gold medal – first place 2005 Inzell 3000 m
Gold medal – first place 2003 Gothenburg Allround
Silver medal – second place 2007 Salt Lake City 1500 m
Silver medal – second place 2005 Moscow Allround
Silver medal – second place 2005 Inzell Team pursuit
Silver medal – second place 2004 Seoul 1500 m
Silver medal – second place 2003 Calgary Sprint
Silver medal – second place 2002 Heerenveen Allround
Bronze medal – third place 2007 Salt Lake City 3000 m
Bronze medal – third place 2007 Heerenveen Allround
Bronze medal – third place 2007 Hamar Sprint
Bronze medal – third place 2004 Seoul 1000 m
Bronze medal – third place 2003 Berlin 1000 m
Bronze medal – third place 2001 Salt Lake City 1500 m

Cindy Klassen, OM (born August 12, 1979 in Winnipeg, Manitoba) is a Canadian long track speed skater. She's tied with Clara Hughes for Canada's all-time most decorated Olympian with 6 medals each. She is also the only Canadian Olympian to win 5 medals in a single Olympic games and the first female speed skater to win 5 medals in a single games.[1] Cindy Klassen was featured on a Canadian Quarter, released on January 5, 2010.[2]

Career

Klassen is a descendant of Mennonite immigrants to Manitoba and is a graduate of Maple Leaf School in the North Kildonan area of Winnipeg and Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute in the Elmwood area of Winnipeg. She started her sports career as an ice hockey player at Gateway Community Club in Winnipeg; in her youth she played for the Canadian National Youth Team. When she wasn't selected for the 1998 Winter Olympics, she switched to speed skating and soon she proved to be a natural talent.

Cindy Klassen missed the entire 2003-2004 season due to a serious injury: she fell during training, colliding with another skater, hitting his skate, and as a result cutting 12 tendons in her right arm.

Record Success

In 2006, she announced she would not carry the Canadian flag at the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, although she had not yet been asked. The flag was instead carried by women's ice hockey veteran Danielle Goyette.

Going into the 2006 Winter Olympics Klassen was considered one of the favourites following her allround title in 2003 and two world distance titles in 2005.[3] Klassen started out in Turin by winning a silver in the 1,000 m, narrowly missing out on gold.[4] Following this silver Klassen became Olympic champion in the 1,500 m. She followed this thrilling gold with a silver in the women's team pursuit, and bronze in the 3,000 m and 5,000 m.[4] Following her 5th and final medals of the games on February 26th, 2006 Klassen said of her success that "Going in to the Games, I though maybe the 1,500 and 3,000 would be my strong point and maybe I could get a medal in those. To come out with five, it's been better than expected and really a dream come true."[4]

Klassen became the first Canadian to win five medals in one Olympic Games. With this achievement, she tied American Eric Heiden's record of five medals won at an Olympics (1980) by a speedskater. At the same time, she overtook the previous Canadian record of most medals (three) in 1984, held by Gaetan Boucher. Cindy Klassen also became the first female speed skater to win 5 medals in a single Olympics, surpassing Lidiya Skoblikova's 4 medals in the 1964 Olympics.[1] Combined with her bronze medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics, she became the first Canadian to win six career Olympic medals, surpassing the five medal mark set previously by Marc Gagnon and Phil Edwards and matched in the same race by winner Clara Hughes at the same 2006 Winter Olympic games.[4]

After her success at the Turin Olympics, she was named flagbearer for the closing ceremony. Her winning the largest number of medals at the Turin Olympics caused IOC president Jacques Rogge to call her the "woman of the games".[5] The following day, February 27, Klassen signed the most lucrative endorsement deal ever for a Canadian amateur athlete, with Manitoba Telecom Services (MTS), estimated at about $1 million. Klassen also signed an endorsement deal with McDonald's. On December 11, she was named as the winner of the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canadian athlete of the year, beating out the likes of Joe Thornton, Justin Morneau, Steve Nash and team mate Clara Hughes.[1]

Surgery and the 2010 Olympics

Cindy Klassen during the 2007 World Championships

In preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Klassen decided not to participate in the fall races for the Speed Skating World Cup. She returned to competition in 2008 but decided to cut the skating season short in February 2008 after her sister was in a near-fatal accident.[6] She also said that she will only focus on the World Single Distance Championships. Defending her all-around title and high World Cup classifications are not her main goal for the season.[7][8] Later that year in July 2008 Cindy Klassen had surgery to repair damage done to the knees over her career and in high school basketball.[9] The surgeries would keep her from competing in the 2008-09 World Cup. Sometime later in 2009 her doctor discussed her knees saying that "These things don't go away, they're not cured. It's not like a broken bone that once it's healed it's back to good strength and can take stress. It's not like that. It's never going to be perfectly normal. It's not possible to get that." He later added that the only way her knees would stop degenerating would be for Cindy Klassen to stop speed skating.[10]

On January 5, 2010 the Royal Canadian Mint announced that they were minting 22 million Canadian quarters with an image of Cindy Klassen in a speed skating pose on it. 3 million of the quarters were minted with a red maple leaf on it. The mint issued the quarters as an honour to Cindy Klassen's 6 medals in the Olympics, and as part of their Olympic Moments quarter-coins series.[11]

Coming back from double knee-surgery and two years off of skating, Klassen's main goal at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver was simply to compete. Klassen saying that ""My goal is just to qualify. To get there would be great."[12] She failed to medal in 2010, placing 21st in the 1500 m, 14th in the 3000 m, and 12th in the 5000 m. Klassen was also named as an alternate in the Team Pursuit.[13] Klassen stated that she was unsure of whether she would continue speed skating after the games, she believed that her knees would hold out and that the 2014 Sochi Olympics were a possibility.[13]

Klassen qualified for the 2010-11 World Cup in October of 2010. Of qualifying, her ongoing injury struggles, and surgery recover Klassen said that “I’m just going to go out and do the best that I can and see what happens. My knees still hurt. Some days are better than others. There’s always aches and pains in skating . . . for me I feel like I’m more of a work skater than technical skater. I’ve been able to do harder training this year than I have in the past, which is a good thing because that’s kind of my strong point so I’ll see where that takes me. It’s been fun but it’s been really hard, too.”[14]

Results

Medals

Awards

Records

As of February 2010, she is the current holder of the world record at the 1,000 m, the 1,500 m, and the 3,000 m and is also the leader of the Adelskalender, the all-time world ranking. The 1:51.79 she skated on the 1,500 m on November 20, 2005 is a phenomenal time; almost 1.5 seconds faster than the previous world record. As a reference, this would have been a world record for men in 1994 before the introduction of clap skates.

Personal records
Women's Speed skating
Event Result Date Location Notes
500 m 37.51 2006-03-18 Calgary
1,000 m 1:13.11 2006-03-25 Calgary Current WR
1,500 m 1:51.79 2005-11-20 Salt Lake City Current WR
3,000 m 3:53.34 2006-03-18 Calgary Current WR
5,000 m 6:48.97 2007-03-19 Calgary Current CR
10,000 m 15:17.63 2002-03-25 Heerenveen
  • All information from Speed Skating Canada records page and Cindy Klassen's SSC profile[15][16]

See also

List of multiple Winter Olympic medalists

References

  1. ^ a b c "Klassen wins Lou Marsh Award". CBC News. 11 December 2006. Retrieved 2010-02-26.
  2. ^ "Mint Releases 25-Cent Coin Celebrating Cindy Klassen's Five Medals in Long-Track Speed Skating in 2006". Mint.ca. Retrieved 2010-01-05.
  3. ^ "Cindy Klassen Biography and Olympic Results". Sports Reference. 26 February 2010. Retrieved 2010-11-08.
  4. ^ a b c d "Klassen becomes Canada's greatest Olympian". CTV News. 11 December 2006. Retrieved 2010-11-08.
  5. ^ CBC: "Canada: Olympic powerhouse?" Retrieved June 7, 2007.
  6. ^ Klassen cancels skating season to care for sister
  7. ^ Olympic champion Cindy Klassen delays start to speedskating season, topix.net
  8. ^ Cindy Klassen neemt even pauze, nos.nl
  9. ^ "Cindy Klassen on road to recovery after knee surgery". Canadian Press. 11 January 2009. Retrieved 2010-02-26.
  10. ^ "Klassen skating through the pain". Toronto Star. October 23, 2009. Retrieved 2010-02-28.
  11. ^ "Mint honours speedskater Cindy Klassen with coin". CBC News. 5 January 2010. Retrieved 2010-02-26.
  12. ^ "Klassen has long way to go, short time to get there". Edmonton Journal. 7 December 2009. Retrieved 2010-02-26.
  13. ^ a b "Klassen, named pursuit team alternate, faces questions about future after Games". Winnipeg Free Press. 26 February. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ^ John Downs (21 October 2010). "Klassen qualifies for World Cup speed skating team". Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 2010-11-08.
  15. ^ "Records". Speed Skating Canada. Retrieved 2010-02-26.
  16. ^ "Speed Skating Canada Cindy Klassen profile". Speed Skating Canada. Retrieved 2010-02-26.

External links

Awards
Preceded by Oscar Mathisen Award
2006 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Lou Marsh Trophy winner
2006 		Succeeded by



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