RICHMOND — Maybe it's the girl-next-door mien or maybe it's the slightly goofy grin but, like a number of her sisters on the Canadian Olympic team, Christine Nesbitt doesn't exactly fit the archetypal image of a cold-eyed killer.
But Thursday afternoon, the 24-year-old speed skater from London, Ont., stepped on the ice at the Richmond Oval for the women's 1,000, slipped in her first two strides, cursed to herself as she crossed the finish line and still did enough to win Canada's third gold medal of the Winter Games.
In so doing, she continued a pattern which is emerging as a storyline in these Olympics: Of the seven medals won by Canadians thus far, five have been won by women, including two of the three golds.
You can discuss among yourselves the significance of those numbers. But, for the Canadian Olympic Committee, it means any thought of owning the podium is inexorably tied up with the XX-chromosome set.
"They're fierce competitors," said Marcel Lacroix, the Canadian speed-skating coach who works with Nesbitt
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specifically, and Kristina Groves, Clara Hughes and others generally. "They're going for the kill. Yeah, they're girls and all that. But you know what? Deep down inside they want to win as much as the guys. Put a hockey stick in their hands and I can guarantee they're going to go into the corners and plow someone. That's how bad they want to win."
In Nesbitt's mind, that's how she won.
Badly.
"I was not happy when I finished the race," said Nesbitt, who became just the second woman in Olympic history to win the 1,000 on home soil. "I didn't think that time would hold out. I thought, 'the worst I can do is a bronze' [Nesbitt posted the first-place time in the second-last pair]. But then I thought, 'I didn't come here to win bronze.'"
But when she looks at the gold medal this morning, she'll realize the issue isn't how she won it. It's that she won it, period.
Despite her protestations, Nesbitt came into the 1,000 as overwhelming favourite based on her four World Cup wins in as many starts this season. But two strides into her race with Germany's Monique Angermuller she didn't look the part and spent most of the race trying to find her rhythm while behind.
Afterwards, the Canadian was still beating herself up for a sloppy performance but, even if this wasn't the perfect race she was looking for, it went a long way in revealing what makes Nesbitt special.
"That really gave her something," Lacroix said of Nesbitt's battle with Angermuller, who faded. "She had a piece of meat in front of her. It was like, 'I'm coming.' She needed a target. That really helped her. She needed a little something and it happened to be there."
Nesbitt, in fact, would win the gold by 2/100ths of a second over Holland's Annette Gerritsen. Canada's Kristina Groves, meanwhile, finished fourth, missing bronze by 6/100ths of a second after capturing third place in Sunday's 3,000 metres by 3/100ths of a second.
Groves, who rates as the favourite in Saturday's 1,500, came into the race ranked seventh in the world in the 1,000.
"That's the way it is," she said of her minuscule miss. "I was lucky the other day."
Lucky is also how Nesbitt described her win but, again, that's not really the point. As Lacroix said, she's dominated this distance all year on her talent, but had to turn to grit and fight to carry the day.
A Monet it wasn't. But style points aren't awarded in this race.
"Just give her a couple of days and she's going to realize she won a gold medal," said Lacroix. "Nobody is going to remember how ugly or beautiful it was. They'll just remember who was on the podium with a gold medal."
As Nesbitt skated her victory lap, she found her boyfriend, Dutch skater Simon Kuipers, gave him a kiss, then tried in vain to locate her parents, Wayne and Judith, and generally seemed confused by the contradictory emotions of the day.
But, in the post-race scrum, she experienced a moment of clarity and, for one moment at least, seemed to understood the enormity of what she'd accomplished.
"I'm actually really proud of myself," she said.
"I think a year or two years ago, I wouldn't have given up but I wouldn't have had that same drive. I hate giving up. I never give up."
Isn't that the quality the defines an Olympic champion in the first place?
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