Cindy Klassen, (born August 12, 1979) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

retired long track speed skater. She is a six-time medallist having achieved one gold, two silver, three bronze at the

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (), also known as the Winter Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were held i ...

. She is the only Canadian Olympian to win five medals in a single Olympic Games and the first female speed skater to win five medals in a single Games at the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics (), officially the XX Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February in Turin, Italy. This marked the second time Italy had hosted the Winter O ...

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, Italy. She was a world record holder in the 3000 m until March 2019, when her time was beaten by

Martina Sáblíková Martina Sáblíková () (born 27 May 1987) is a Czech speed skater, specializing in long track speed skating. She is an Olympic gold medal winner and a multiple European and World allround champion. She became the first Czech to win two Olym ...

. She also holds the Canadian records over 1500 m and 5000 m. Klassen is the leader of the Adelskalender, which is the all-time world ranking for speed skating. In 2003, Klassen became the first Canadian in 27 years to win the overall title at the

World Speed Skating Championships The International Skating Union organises the following World Championships in the sport of speed skating: Records World Allround Men Source: SpeedSkatingStats.com Women Source: SpeedSkatingStats.com Junior ; Multiple champions (overall ...

. Klassen has several major awards and accolades to her name, including the Lou Marsh Trophy in 2006, which is awarded for Canada's best athlete of the year. Due to her accomplishments at the 2006 Winter Olympics and her many accomplishments throughout her career, Klassen was named to the Order of Manitoba. Klassen was awarded the Oscar Mathisen Award in 2006 for outstanding speed skating performance of the year. In 2007, she was named the Female Athlete of the Year at the Canadian Sports Awards. Klassen won the 2005 and 2006 Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as female athlete of the year as presented by the

Canadian Press The Canadian Press (CP; , ) is a Canadian national news agency headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. Established in 1917 as a vehicle for Canadian newspapers to exchange news and information, The Canadian Press has been a private, not-for-profit c ...

. She was also tipped as Speed Skating Canada's 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2007 Female Skater of the Year for long track speed skating. The Canadian Mint featured Klassen on a Canadian quarter in 2010 as part of their Olympic memories editions and as a recognition of her six Olympic medals.

Career

Klassen started her sports career as an

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player at Gateway Community Club in Winnipeg and played for the Canadian national youth team. When she was not selected for the

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 (), were a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Nagano, Nagano, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, with some events ...

, she switched to speed skating, where she soon proved to be a natural talent. Klassen missed the entire 2003–04 season due to a serious injury. She fell during training, collided with another skater, hit his skate, and as a result twelve

tendon A tendon or sinew is a tough band of fibrous connective tissue, dense fibrous connective tissue that connects skeletal muscle, muscle to bone. It sends the mechanical forces of muscle contraction to the skeletal system, while withstanding tensi ...

s in her right arm were cut.

Record success

In 2006, she announced she would not carry the Canadian flag at the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, although she had not yet been asked. The flag was instead carried by women's ice hockey veteran Danielle Goyette. Going into the

in Turin, Klassen was considered one of the favourites, following her allround title in 2003 and two world distance titles in 2005. Klassen started out by winning a silver in the 1000 m, narrowly missing out on gold. Klassen then became Olympic champion in the 1500 m. She followed this with a silver in the women's team pursuit and bronze in the 3000 m and 5000 m. Following her fifth and final medal of the Games on February 26, 2006, Klassen said of her success that "Going into the Games, I thought maybe the 1500 and 3000 would be my strong point and maybe I could get a medal in those. To come out with five, it's been better than expected and really a dream come true." Klassen became the first Canadian to win five medals in one Olympic Games. With this achievement, she tied American

Eric Heiden Eric Arthur Heiden (born June 14, 1958) is an American physician and a former long track speed skater, road cyclist and track cyclist. He won an unprecedented five individual gold medals, and set four Olympic records and one world record at th ...

's record of five medals won by a speed skater at an Olympics (

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

). At the same time, she overtook the previous Canadian record of most medals (three), set in

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

by Gaétan Boucher. Klassen also became the first female speed skater to win five medals in a single Olympics, surpassing Lidiya Skoblikova's four medals in the 1964 Olympics. Combined with her bronze medal at the

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 (; Gosiute dialect, Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; ; Shoshoni language, Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), were an international wi ...

, she became the first Canadian to win six career Olympic medals, surpassing the five medals of

Marc Gagnon Marc Gagnon (born May 24, 1975) is a Canadian former short track speed skating, short track speed skater. He is a four-time World Short Track Speed Skating Championships, Overall World Champion for 1993, 1994, 1996 and 1998, and winner of three O ...

and Phil Edwards and matched in the same race by winner

Clara Hughes Clara Hughes (born September 27, 1972) is a Canadian cycle sport, cyclist and speed skating, speed skater who has won multiple Olympic Games, Olympic medals in both sports. Hughes won two bronze in the 1996 Summer Olympics and four medals (one g ...

at the same 2006 Winter Olympics. She was named flagbearer for the closing ceremony. Her winning the largest number of medals at the Turin Olympics caused IOC president Jacques Rogge to call her the "woman of the games". The following day, February 27, Klassen signed the most lucrative endorsement deal ever for a Canadian amateur athlete, with Manitoba Telecom Services (MTS), estimated at $1 million. Klassen also signed an endorsement deal with McDonald's. On December 11, she was named as the winner of the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canadian athlete of the year, beating out the likes of Joe Thornton, Justin Morneau,

Steve Nash Stephen John Nash (born 7 February 1974) is a Canadian professional basketball coach and former player who most recently served as head coach of the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played 18 seasons in the NBA, ...

and teammate

Surgery and the 2010 Olympics

In preparation for the

2010 Winter Olympics The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Vancouver 2010 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held from February 12 to 28, 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with ...

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, Klassen decided not to participate in the fall races for the Speed Skating World Cup. She returned to competition in 2008 but decided to cut the skating season short in February 2008 after her sister was in a near-fatal accident. She also said that she would only focus on the World Single Distance Championships. Defending her all-around title and high World Cup classifications were not her main goal for the season. In July Klassen had surgery to repair damage done to her knees over her career and in high school basketball. The surgeries would keep her from competing in the 2008–09 World Cup. Sometime later in 2009, her doctor discussed her knees, saying that:

These things don't go away, they're not cured. It's not like a broken bone that once it's healed it's back to good strength and can take stress. It's not like that. It's never going to be perfectly normal. It's not possible to get that.

He later added that the only way for her knees to stop degenerating would be for Klassen to give up speed skating. On January 5, 2010, the

Royal Canadian Mint The Royal Canadian Mint () is the mint of Canada and a Crown corporation, operating under an act of parliament referred to as the ''Royal Canadian Mint Act''. The shares of the mint are held in trust for the Crown in right of Canada. The mi ...

announced that they were minting 22 million Canadian quarters with an image of Klassen in a speed skating pose on it. Three million of the quarters were minted with a red

maple leaf The maple leaf is the characteristic leaf of the maple tree. It is most widely recognized as the national symbols of Canada, national symbol of Canada. History of use in Canada By the early 1700s, the maple leaf had been adopted as an emblem by ...

on it. The mint issued the quarters as an honour to Klassen's six medals in the Olympics, and as part of their Olympic Moments quarter-coins series. Coming back from double knee-surgery and two years off from skating, Klassen's main goal at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver was simply to compete. She said that "My goal is just to qualify. To get there would be great." She failed to medal in 2010, placing 21st in the 1500 m, 14th in the 3000 m, and 12th in the 5000 m. Klassen was also named as an alternate in the team pursuit. While Klassen stated that she was unsure of whether she would continue speed skating after the Games, she believed that her knees would hold out and that the 2014 Sochi Olympics were a possibility.

Return from injury and retirement

Klassen qualified for the 2010–11 World Cup in October 2010. Of qualifying, her ongoing injury struggles, and surgery recover Klassen said that:

I'm just going to go out and do the best that I can and see what happens. My knees still hurt. Some days are better than others. There's always aches and pains in skating . . . for me I feel like I'm more of a work skater than technical skater. I've been able to do harder training this year than I have in the past, which is a good thing because that's kind of my strong point so I'll see where that takes me. It's been fun but it's been really hard, too.

At the first meet of the World Cup season, Klassen got her first individual podium result since the 2007–08 season, finishing second in the 3000 m and following that with a fourth-place finish in the 1500 m the next day. Despite the pain and fatigue from injuries, Klassen became a member of the women's team pursuit team that first won gold at the 2011 World Championships and then came back at the 2012 Worlds to win a silver as repeat medallists. That same season she had also helped to pull the women to the top of the World Cup title, winning three of four races that year together with Brittany Schussler and Christine Nesbitt. She retired in June 2015 after the tail end of her career was hampered by injuries. Klassen issued a retirement interview stating "It's been an incredible honour to represent Canada in speed skating for 15 years. Speed skating has been a blessing in my life. It has provided me with unbelievable experiences and has taught me many life lessons."

Post-retirement from sports

After retirement from sports, she finished a degree in psychology and joined the

Calgary Police Service Calgary Police Service (CPS; ) is the municipal police service of the City of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It is the largest municipal police service in Alberta and third largest municipal force in Canada behind the Toronto Police Service and the Mo ...

as a constable.

Results

Records

On March 18, 2006, Cindy Klassen Set the women's 3000m

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organizatio ...

in Calgary, Canada, which stood almost 13 years until March 2, 2019.

beat Klassen's time of 3:53.34 by 0.03 seconds at the Allround World Championships in Calgary. Cindy Klassen is the leader of the Adelskalender, the all-time world ranking.

World records

Source: SpeedSkatingStats.com.

References

External links

Cindy Klassen's official homepage

"Canada's greatest Olympian Cindy Klassen and MTS form winning team with major sponsorship deal"
– MTS press release, February 27, 2006
Cindy Klassen's results
– at SpeedSkatingStats.com
Cindy Klassen biography
– at Speed Skating Canada
Photos of Cindy Klassen
– at Lars Hagen's DESG Photo website {{DEFAULTSORT:Klassen, Cindy 1979 births Living people Canadian female speed skaters Canadian women's ice hockey players Olympic speed skaters for Canada Olympic medalists in speed skating Olympic gold medalists for Canada Olympic silver medalists for Canada Olympic bronze medalists for Canada Speed skaters at the 2002 Winter Olympics Speed skaters at the 2006 Winter Olympics Speed skaters at the 2010 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2002 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2006 Winter Olympics World Allround Speed Skating Championships medalists World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships medalists World Sprint Speed Skating Championships medalists Speed skaters from Winnipeg Members of the Order of Manitoba Northern Star Award winners Canadian women police officers Canadian Mennonites 21st-century Canadian sportswomen