Sarault adds to collection with first Olympic medal

One of Canada’s rising short track speed skating stars has checked off a major career accomplishment.

Courtney Sarault won her first individual medal at the Olympic Games after skating to bronze in the women’s 500m on Thursday.

“I don’t even think it’s set in yet,” Sarault said after her race. “It feels amazing.”

The 25-year-old from Moncton, N.B. put herself in podium contention after winning her heat on Tuesday, and then went on to record the fastest time in her pairing in both the quarterfinal and semifinal ahead of Thursday’s final.

In the final, Sarault started in the fourth lane and spent the first three laps trailing the pack in fourth place. It wasn’t until the final lap that Sarault moved to the outside to give herself a shot to pass Dutch skater Selma Poutsma. On the final turn, Sarault had to stay on the outside but managed to get the blade of her right skate across the line 0.5 seconds ahead of Poutsma to clinch her first individual Olympic medal.

“I had to plan in a second what else to do,” said Sarault who picked up a silver medal as part of the mixed relay earlier in the Games. “I just said ‘screw it, I’m going outside’. It worked out pretty well for me.”

An individual medal is yet another milestone in what has propelled Sarault to stardom. In 2025, Sarault became the Crystal Globe champion as the top woman overall during the 2025-26 ISU Short Track World Tour. She has also won six World Championship medals in individual distances.

In Beijing 2022, she missed the podium in each of her two individual races, and finished fourth as a part of the 3000m relay team. It made Thursday all the more special.

“It’s a dream. It’s been a dream, and it’s something this year I thought could be in the cards for me,” she said.

“The fact that I’m standing here now – individual Olympic medallist, I don’t even think it’s set in how cool it is.”

Dutch skater Xandra Velzeboer captured gold after clocking an Olympic record 41.853 in the quarterfinals, and setting a new world record of 41.399 in the semis. Italy’s Arianna Fontana (42.294) took silver, the 13th medal of her Olympic career.

Canadian Kim Boutin reached the women’s 500-metre final for a third straight Olympic Games. A bronze medallist in the event at the past two Olympics, Boutin was unable to return to the podium, finishing fifth, nearly two seconds behind the medal positions.

“It’s pretty hard for me to see how I finished,” she said following the race. “At the start, I tried to pass to the other side, I lost all my speed on that.”

Despite a nagging back injury, Boutin looked fresh in the mixed team relay, and was able to breeze through qualifying and subsequent rounds.

“I feel like I had a pretty hard season with my back,” said the five-time Olympic medallist. “I think just coming back and doing the best that I can – it was not that bad.”

In the men’s 1000m, William Dandjinou settled for a very tough fourth-place finish.

“The field is so strong in short track – can’t make a mistake,” he said.

Dandjinou came out of the gate with a great start and took the lead from Dutch skater Jens van ’T Wout in the third lap. He held the lead all the way until the eighth and final lap, when he started to get tired and was passed by three skaters.

Van ’T Wout took gold, while China’s Sun Long and South Korea’s Rim Jongun claimed silver and bronze, respectively.

Dandjinou is a two-time Crystal Globe winner in short track, and won the World Championship in the 1000m in 2024.

The 24-year-old will race three more times in Milan.

“I’m not worried too much about it right now,” he said. “I just hope Canada saw me and was proud, and if I make my family and Canada proud, I can’t be too mad about it.”

Speed skating will continue tomorrow with the men’s long track 10,000m.