Ted-Jan Bloemen top male performer on Saturday with seventh-place result in 10,000m marathon

HEERENVEEN, NETHERLANDS – Ivanie Blondin returned to the World Cup podium in the women’s 1500m for the first time in nearly five seasons, earning a bronze medal in the distance Saturday in Heerenveen.

Skating in the sixth pair alongside hometown skater Angel Daleman, Blondin (Ottawa, Ont.) overcame a slow start by chasing down her competitor, making up ground across the next four laps before crossing the finish line in 1:53.43. Blondin’s time placed her behind Dutch medalists Antoinette Rijpma-De Jong (1:53.36) and Joy Beune (1:53.10), the top two skaters in the distance this season.

The third-place result Saturday moved the veteran Canadian into sixth overall in the distance with one World Cup to go, a positive steps towards pre-qualifying herself for Milano-Cortina 2026.

“Taking a bronze in the 1500m is a huge bonus. I’m really happy about it, but I was not expecting it. The field is so close and that’s what makes it so exciting. There are definitely advantages based on the way that you skate. For me, it’s an advantage if I have a good pair. Angel was so fast off the start, and I had to chase her for the entire race, until the last half-lap when I pulled ahead of her.”

Ivanie Blondin

It was no doubt a surprising result for the 35-year-old Blondin, who last reached the World Cup podium in the distance during the 2019-20 season, when she earned gold in Nur-Sultan and silver on home ice in Calgary. The Ottawa native cracked the top 10 a few weeks ago in at Calgary’s Olympic Oval and had season-best performances of fifth in 2024-25, sixth in 2023-24, fourth in 2022-23 and eighth in 2021-22.

“I’m honestly surprised. Surprised but at the same time, with what I’ve been able to do in training up to this point, I think this result makes sense. I always tend to perform better on slower ice – I struggle when the ice is fast. But it’s surprising because yesterday I really didn’t feel like myself in my 5000m. My legs got really sore and I was hesitant on the lap time. Confidence wise, when you look at my results so far this this season, my confidence is obviously not there. But I do think that’s what brought the fight out in me today. Today, I just fought a little harder and controlled what I could control, and it gave me this result.”

Ivanie Blondin

The ISU World Cup Speed Skating in Heerenveen concludes tomorrow with the men’s and women’s 500m, Mass Start and Team Sprint. Racing will be live streamed on CBC Sports and Radio-Canada Sports digital platforms beginning at 8:00am ET.

Results

Women’s 1500m

Ivanie Blondin: 3rd
Valérie Maltais: 16th
Isabelle Weidemann: 4th (Division B)
Alexa Scott: 16th (Division B)

Men’s 10,000m

Ted-Jan Bloemen: 7th
Graeme Fish: 10th (Division B)
Daniel Hall: 35th (Division B)

Men’s 1000m

Anders Johnson: 6th (Division B)
Yankun Zhao: 11th (Division B)
Tyson Langelaar: 16th (Division B)
Cedrick Brunet: 20th (Division B)