Speed skaters Rose Laliberté-Roy, Laurent Dubreuil and Anders Johnson ensured their qualifications for the 1000m event at the Milan-Cortina Games by winning the distance on Sunday at the 2026 Canada Cup Long Track in Quebec.
For Laliberté-Roy, this will be a first Olympic participation. The athlete from Saint-Étienne narrowly missed qualifying for the 500m on Saturday. This time, she recovered by beating Manitoban Alexa Scott (1:17.332) and British-Columbian Carolina Hiller-Donnelly (1:17.578) with a time of 1 min 17 s 61/1000.
I feel like I’m in a dream! I have visualized that moment and that race so much in my head over the years. It was the ideal scenario that happened today – all the ingredients were there for me to succeed. I knew I could do it, but it was just a matter of delivering the goods and I managed to do that under pressure. I’m really, really relieved
commented Laliberté-Roy in a press release.
Béatrice Lamarche, from Quebec, had already secured her Olympic qualification in the 1000m.
Among the men, Quebecer Laurent Dubreuil and Ontarian Anders Johnson, who had already qualified for the Olympics in the 500m, won their Olympic ticket for the 1000m event on Sunday.
Dubreuil won in 1 min 08 sec 935/1000 while Johnson obtained the silver medal with a time of 1:09.290.
Laurent Dubreuil
Photo: Speed Skating Canada
An Olympic silver medalist in the 1000m at Beijing 2022, Dubreuil, 33, knows he still has work to do in this event before he can aspire to a medal in February.
Without exaggeration, it was one of the hardest 1000m of my career
admitted Dubreuil, who had focused on the 500m in recent weeks and who was ill during the holiday season.
But overall, it wasn’t bad weather. It doesn’t give you an international medal, but it’s not so bad. With a little training and competing in the 1000m at the World Cup in Inzell, it will help me to be better prepared for the Games. Lowering my time is a big order, but it’s not impossible.
For her part, Alberta’s Laura Hall qualified for the 5000m at the Milan-Cortina Games by winning the event on Sunday in 7:09.614.
The 22-year-old long-distance specialist also qualified for the 3000m event on Saturday. Ontarian Isabelle Weidemann will also be competing in the distance in Italy.
Canada will be able to delegate a maximum of eight women and seven men to Milano-Cortina 2026. The Canadian Olympic long track team will be formalized later in January.
