Opinion | Five-time Canadian medallist Charles Hamelin is gunning for glory at his final Olympics

BEIJING Charles Hamelin has life on the other side of the Olympics all scoped out.

Wedding this summer, honeymoon in South Africa, new career as a businessman with two companies he’s already established, merchandising skating equipment and connecting youths who exhibit either interest or talent in short track, the sport that has been his consuming passion.

But before his second act launches, the 37-year-old is still an Olympian, still mining for medals, still a once and forever legend.

The venerable Hamelin, the straw that has long stirred the short-track drink in Canada, claims he’ll retire after the 2022 world championships in Montreal, on the heels of Beijing, his fifth Games. Of course he said that last time ’round too, upon leaving Pyeongchang with just a single bronze in the men’s 5,000-metre relay and a slew of DQs. Changed his mind following the 2018 world championships shortly thereafter, also in Montreal, where he collected a brace of gold in the 1,000 metres and 1,500 metres.

“So it was all postponed and I’m really happy with that decision,’’ he said Tuesday afternoon in the mixed zone at the short-track venue.

The thing is, was, Hamelin had a crisis of competitive conscience when he departed Pyeongchang. “Not with the result, I was disappointed with how I felt. Even though I had a medal around my neck, I felt like I didn’t have a positive souvenir of those Games.’’

That’s what he calls his medals — souvenirs. He’s got five of them from the Olympics, including a pair of gold won 30 minutes apart in Vancouver 2010: 500 metres and relay. That quintet has him in a tie for Canada’s most decorated male winter Olympian with Marc Gagnon, François-Louis Tremblay and Scott Moir. Any podium finish and he’d have the half-a-dozen distinction alone.

“I didn’t come here to beat a record or rewrite history,’’ he insists, shaking his head. “I’m here to have fun and make sure I bring fun to the team. I want to have fun with the boys and the girls. Even if I don’t have medals around my neck coming home, I think what I did in the past is much stronger than what I will achieve here.’’

Protests aside, make no mistake. Hamelin is gunning for glory. Olympic medalling never gets old, though he might be.

“The love of short track for me is everything. That’s the main reason why I’m here right now. I have the objective of coming home with a big smile on my face and make sure that I have no regrets after the Games. With a nice souvenir from here.’’

And he doesn’t mean Olympics kitsch.

Four years ago, when Hamelin was half of a short-track King and Queen couple — fiancée Marianne St-Gelais the other half (though they’d actually already broken up after a decade together, a detail kept under wraps) — the Games didn’t go as envisioned for him. And though he insists the post-Olympics ennui wasn’t attributable to a solitary bronze, there’s no doubt those Games left a hollowness.

Medals have structured and defined his life since he first entered a competition as a nine-year-old, raised in a Sainte-Julie, Que., family of short-track devotees. Learned at the knee of a father, Yves, who coached at the national level, and preceded by an older brother, François, who won gold alongside him in Vancouver. Chaotic and unpredictable the sport might be but there’s always been a remarkable podium constancy to Hamelin.

The man has racked up 37 medals at the world championships, for goodness sake — as many as Russia, Hungary, Australia, Poland and Belgium combined. Plus a World Cup tally of 60 gold, 44 silver and 27 bronze. He’s the defending world champion in the 1,500.

OK, 37 is, well, 37. But Hamelin is clearly still bringing it, his wiry body rebounding from the crashes, collisions and spinouts of the sport.

“I have a body that can withstand a lot. For me that’s the key — I can do a little training or I can have a big load. With the years I need to manage a little bit my body more because, yes, I’m getting older. It’s not so easy, year after year. But my coach (Sébastien Cros), he knows me really well, my roots, how I train. If I follow the play, I’ll be performing well, with good energy.’’

There is, as well, the mental settling that has accompanied first-time fatherhood, daughter Violette born almost two years ago to fiancée Geneviève Tardif, a sports reporter with Radio-Canada.

“When you have a kid, you realize a lot of things that maybe I didn’t understand before. To be a little bit more patient, to enjoy the good vibes. I’m serious on the ice and I don’t talk a lot at practice. But I’m a really fun guy, I like to make jokes. I wasn’t doing that as much before because I was more serious, more focused on myself. Since I’m a dad there’s less stress in the head to compete.’’

The potency and allure of short-track speedskating in Quebec is quite extraordinary — just one member of the Olympic team hails from outside the province. Hamelin, who’s greatly responsible for much of that short-track gloss, explains the sport’s resonance thusly: “We have a lot of icons in Quebec, a lot of role models that went to the Olympics and they give back to the sport. They go back to their clubs. Olympics after Olympics we’ve had success. Parents want to put their children into short track. Kids see us on TV and it’s something they hope they can become.’’

If this is indeed the end of the Olympic line for Hamelin, then these are Games of farewell poignancy.

“I’m happy to be saying it’s my last. I’m at peace with that.’’

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Most decorated Canadian Olympians

7

— Penny Oleksiak, swimming (one gold, two silver, four bronze)

6

— Cindy Klassen, long-track speedskating (one gold, two silver, three bronze)

— Clara Hughes, long-track speedskating, road cyclist (one gold, one silver, four bronze)

— Andre De Grasse, athletics (one gold, one silver, four bronze)

5

— Hayley Wickenheiser, ice hockey (four gold, one silver)

— Jayna Hefford, ice hockey (four gold, one silver)

— Tessa Virtue, figure skating (three gold, two silver)

— Scott Moir, figure skating (three gold, two silver)

— Charles Hamelin, short-track speedskating (three gold, one silver, one bronze)

— Marc Gagnon, short-track speedskating (three gold, two bronze)

— François-Louis Tremblay, short-track speedskating (two gold, two silver, one bronze)

— Lesley Thompson-Willie, rowing (one gold, three silver, one bronze)

— Phil Edwards, athletics (five bronze)

Rosie DiManno is a Toronto-based columnist covering sports and current affairs for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @rdimanno