Isabelle Weidemann aiming for third medal at Beijing 2022

Isabelle Weidemann has her sights on a hat-trick of medals at Beijing 2022.

The speed skater is the only Team Canada athlete to have twice made the podium at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games after winning silver in the 5000m and bronze over 3000m.

Weidemann will take to the ice once more at the National Speed Skating Oval on Tuesday (15 February) just after 14:30 local time (01:30 EST) when Canada compete in the semi-finals of the women's team pursuit.

If the team of Weidemann, Alexa Scott, Valerie Maltais and Ivanie Blondin beat Netherlands in the second semi-final, they will meet the winners of ROC and Japan.

Defeat would see them go into the B Final with bronze at stake. That is at 16:22 (03:22 EST) local time followed immediately by the A Final for gold.

Weidemann wins Canada's first medal of the Games

Weidemann is competing at her second Olympic Winter Games following her debut at PyeongChang 2018.

She was fourth in the women's team pursuit four years ago as well as claiming sixth and seventh-place finishes in the individual events.

The 26-year-old was a member of the Canada pursuit team that came second at the 2021 World Championships in Heerenveen, Netherlands, a year after they took bronze at Salt Lake City.

Her 3000m bronze was Canada's first of the Games.

She told Olympics.com: "It’s very special. It’s pretty surreal right now and I’m very overwhelmed with emotion.

"I am very excited and just so proud."

Then she went one better in the 5000m with Dutchwoman Irene Schouten taking gold on each occasion.

Changing her mindset

Weidemann's training was doubly affected over the past couple of years because of Covid-19 and 10 months without ice at the Oval in Calgary where she is based.

However, it made her step back and assess her training methods which ultimately led to a different approach.

She told theglobeandmail.com: “I recognised a lot of things I was doing was pretty unsustainable. You can’t get away with overtraining, putting in mindless hours.

“During COVID, we lost our ice in Calgary, and we didn’t have the opportunity to train as a group. We had to be resourceful, we had to find different ways to train and I found a lot of fun in that.

“As distance athletes, we tend to be kind of our worst enemy sometimes. It’s not productive to kind of train every day hours and hours and hours and not find joy in what you’re doing. I worked very hard to change that mindset.”

Losing count at the National Speed Skating Oval

During the 5,000m, Weidemann lost count of how many laps she had left at the National Speed Skating Oval.

She told Olympics.com: “I wanted to find a zone where I was focusing on the rhythm and the corners and my technical cues.

"It helps me focus to attack every lap like it’s a new opportunity. Often I don’t look back at the lap board.”

Watching Kristina Groves set her Olympic dream in motion

Weidemann was raised in Ottawa, Ontario, where she started skating at age six before moving into speed skating at 12.

Both her siblings - brother Jake and sister Lily - were national level speed skaters.

As a young skater, she thought the 3000m was too long a distance and wanted to be a sprinter.

Watching Kristina Groves - who is also from Ottawa - win silver in the 1500m and bronze over 3000m really sparked her Olympic dream.

Weidemann has joined Groves in a club of five Canadian women to win multiple speed skating medals at a single Winter Olympics.

The others are current chef de mission Catriona Le May Doan (1998), Cindy Klassen and Clara Hughes (both 2006).