Wonder women have world at their feet

By ALLAN MAKI
Monday, February 10, 2003
THE GLOBE AND MAIL

Please stand and give a rousing cheer to Canada's winter wonder women, the 24-karat sisters: Mélanie Turgeon, Cindy Klassen and Clara Hughes. In one day in two sports at two championship events, they delivered more gold than Bre-X Minerals. They kicked ice in more faces than an Arctic bully. They took on the world, and the world had to settle for second best.

In a weekend in which bobsledder Pierre Lueders won another World Cup
two-man title and downhiller Erik Guay finished sixth at the world alpine
championships, it was the unbeatable trio of Ms. Turgeon, Ms. Klassen and
Ms. Hughes who wrote the country's biggest stories and deserved all the best adjectives.

For Ms. Turgeon, her win in the women's downhill at St. Moritz, Switzerland,
marked the first time in 10 years a Canadian has stood atop the world
championship podium in the sport's marquee discipline.

For Ms. Klassen, her triumph in Goteberg, Sweden, as the world all-round
speed-skating champion marked the first time in 27 years a Canadian had
topped the field for overall honours.

As for Ms. Hughes, she won the world gold medal in the 5,000-metre skating
event, making her the first Canadian to finish first in a distance the
Europeans have owned and loved.

Can you say global domination Canadian-style? Can you imagine what it might be like three years from now at the Winter Olympics in Torino? These women can. They've made it abundantly clear our women can do more than curl and play hockey and that our speed-skating hopes will not fade once Catriona Le May Doan retires. Ms. Turgeon, 26, Ms. Klassen, 23, and Ms. Hughes, 30, have fulfilled outstanding promises and created future expectations.

For Ms. Turgeon, her victory couldn't have come at a better time. Now she
knows, and we do, too, that she has the right stuff on the white stuff. That
wasn't always the case. Although she once captured five medals at a world junior alpine championship, Ms. Turgeon hadn't come close to matching that success on the World Cup tour. She would tease in training, then disappoint on race day.Then, just as people were ready to write her off as a good talent gone soft, she'd put together a promising run in the downhill and finish in the top six or occasionally the top three. The questions were: Did she have the heart of a champion and could she push herself to do more?

"For some reason, I was always holding back before," she said yesterday. "I
was always asking myself, 'Why not me?' so I just went for it. "I thought,
'Why can't I win today?' so I just charged down."

And right into the record books.

Ms. Klassen earned her niche in time when she won a bronze medal at the 2002Winter Olympics before finishing second overall at last month's world sprint championships in Calgary. With yesterday's gold medal, she became the first speed skater in 15 years to win an overall medal in both world championships (sprints and all-round) in the same year. She can play both ends of the rink, hit for the cycle, work the low and high post, which is what you'd expect from someone who played hockey with the Canadian national team and field lacrosse in the 1994 Commonwealth Games.

"The 5K is the hardest distance for me," said Ms. Klassen, who was third
behind Ms. Hughes to clinch the overall crown. "It's not my favourite. But
this was the big goal of my whole season. I came through. I couldn't have
asked for more."

So you know: Ms. Hughes's gold in the 5,000 is a splendid addition to the
Olympic medals she's won in speed skating and cycling. It's also worth
mentioning that Kristina Groves finished fourth overall at the all-round
worlds. Put all these skaters on the same team and we're talking the kind of
potential to write a new chapter in Canadian speed skating.

So give a cheer to our winter wonder women. We may flop in ski jumping and bomb in biathlon. We may have the world's most anonymous men's cross-country ski squad but right now, in the midst of a cold February, we have our share of female athletes who are simply too hot to handle. They know how to win and they're not afraid to do it again. In fact, they're growing accustomed to standing atop the medal podium.

And that's a wonderful thing.

amaki@globeandmail.ca <mailto:amaki@globeandmail.ca>