Another World Cup race, another silver medal for Prince George speed skater Carolina Hiller.
Having already set Canada’s fastest 500-metre time this year (37.85 seconds), Hiller teamed up with Ivanie Blondin of Ottawa and Brooklyn McDougall of Calgary to win the silver medal in the ISU World Cup team sprint Saturday in Calgary.
Their time – 1:25.72 – established a new women’s team sprint Canadian record.
They were just five-hundredths of a second behind the gold medalists from the United States (Kimi Goetz, Erin Jackson, McKenzie Browne) who clocked 1:25.68.
“It’s such a fun race and me and Ivanie and Brooklyn haven’t skated together at all this year, so the past two times we raced it we just wanted to see what we could do,” said the 25-year-old Prince George Blizzard Speed Skating Club amumna.
“Brooklyn and I have really fast starts, so that’s really beneficial for the team sprint, and Ivanie has a killer sprint lap and iso it really works perfectly for us, we’re a great combo.”
Hiller took the lead lap, followed by McDougall and Blondin. In the team sprint, racers from each team line up on opposite sides of the 400m track. The lead skater drops off and exits the ice on the straightaway after finishing one lap, while the second sprinter stays with the group for two laps before exiting. Only the anchor completes all three laps.
You can watch the race here.
It was the second team sprint silver medal for Hiller, Blondin and McDougall, who placed second a month ago in Heerenveen, Netherlands.
Hiller’s personal-record 500m time, set in Friday’s race in Calgary, is the 15th-quickest time in the world in that event this season.
“That’s the highest I’ve ever been ranked, it’s been quite a breakthrough year for me” said Hiller, who just completed her kinesiology degree at the University of Calgary. “This is my first World Cup circuit and I’m quite excited. I can’t wait to see what I do for the rest of the season.”
Hiller first arrived on the national scene as a multi-medalist in long track at the 2015 Canada Winter Games, hosted in Prince George. She spent four years on the NextGen national squad but was dropped from the team last year and lost her Sport Canada funding as a carded athlete.
She considered ending her competitive career but resumed her training over the summer with the Olympic Oval club in Calgary. Her coach, Kevin Crockett, trained Korean skater Sang-Hwa Lee, who in 2013 set the world record in the 500 (36.36), a record that still stands.
“Technical-wise I had some big gaps we were able to focus on this year, which has made a huge difference,” said Hiller.
“I was honestly so close to retiring last year, I had plateaued for a couple years and I was like, maybe this is the best I can do in the sport. Then I saw Kevin was the coach for the Oval Program and I had heard incredible things about him as a coach.”
In four weekends of World Cup competition in her career Hiller now has two silver medals and a national record to show for it.
Hiller is hoping to bring those medals back to Prince George at some point this season to share with current Blizzard club skaters but that won’t happen over Christmas.
She needs the time to train for Canadian team skate-off competition in Quebec City in early January. That’s Hiller’s chance to earn a spot on the team for the 1,000m events for rest of World Cup season with back-to-back weekends in Poland in mid-February and the world championships in March in Heerenveen.
“This year has been about proving to myself I’m not done with the sport yet,” said Hiller. “I’m not carded this year so financially it’s been a bit of struggle but know it will all be worth it in the end.”
