BEIJING, CHINA – Steven Dubois came through the chaos of a 10-man final to win a silver medal in the men’s 1500m at Beijing 2022.
Sitting at the back of the unusually large pack for the first few laps of the 13-and-a-half lap race, Dubois cleanly made his way up to sixth place by lap five and then made another move on the following lap to get into second just behind South Korean Hwang Daeheon. Dubois held onto that spot for the rest of the race and just edged out Semen Elistratov of ROC in a photo finish, by 0.013 of a second, for the silver medal.
In his Olympic debut, Dubois was advanced into the A final after being impeded in his semifinal. He was one of four skaters who was advanced to the A final after penalties were assessed. They joined the six athletes who had qualified for the final by finishing in the top two in their semifinal heat.
Dubois was an alternate for the 2018 Olympic team. He just missed the podium in this event at the 2019 World Championships, placing fourth for his career-best result at the worlds, but has won three World Cup medals in the 1500m.
This is the third Olympic medal Canada has won in the men’s 1500m. Charles Hamelin won gold at Sochi 2014 after Marc Gagnon captured bronze 20 years ago at Salt Lake City 2002. Gagnon is now an assistant coach with the national team.
Quotes
“I knew that if I was smart in the race, use my legs and don’t make bad choices I could be there. That’s what I did. I did one pass, I guess two, but one big pass. And that’s all that it took to get a medal.”
Steven Dubois
“When there’s 10 people in the race, you can’t really be in the back, because there’s no way you’re going to come back. You saw in this race, the top three skaters over there in the maybe last five, six laps, we all finished one, two three. I was going to go fast, because no one wants to be in the back.”
Steven Dubois
“I was shaking a bit when I got into the final. But I think having so many good skaters, it brought the best in me and that’s why I got to skate as good as I could and I got the silver medal. I’d like to thank all my competitors who helped me achieve what I did.”
Steven Dubois