Cindy Klassen

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Cindy Klassen
CindyKlassen.jpg
Personal information
Born August 12, 1979 (age 38)
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Height 1.72 m (5 ft 8 in)
Weight 71 kg (157 lb; 11.2 st)
Website www.cindyklassen.com
Sport
Country Canada
Sport Speed skating
Medal record[hide]
Women's speed skating
Olympic Games
Gold medal � first place 2006 Turin 1500 m
Silver medal � second place 2006 Turin Team pursuit
Silver medal � second place 2006 Turin 1000 m
Bronze medal � third place 2002 Salt Lake City 3000 m
Bronze medal � third place 2006 Turin 5000 m
Bronze medal � third place 2006 Turin 3000 m
World Allround Championships
Gold medal � first place 2003 Gothenburg Allround
Gold medal � first place 2006 Calgary Allround
Silver medal � second place 2002 Heerenveen Allround
Silver medal � second place 2005 Moscow Allround
Bronze medal � third place 2007 Heerenveen Allround
World Sprint Championships
Silver medal � second place 2003 Calgary Sprint
Bronze medal � third place 2007 Hamar Sprint
World Single Distance Championships
Gold medal � first place 2005 Inzell 1500 m
Gold medal � first place 2005 Inzell 3000 m
Gold medal � first place 2011 Inzell Team pursuit
Silver medal � second place 2004 Seoul 1500 m
Silver medal � second place 2005 Inzell Team pursuit
Silver medal � second place 2007 Salt Lake City 1500 m
Silver medal � second place 2012 Heerenveen Team pursuit
Bronze medal � third place 2001 Salt Lake City 1500 m
Bronze medal � third place 2003 Berlin 1000 m
Bronze medal � third place 2004 Seoul 1000 m
Bronze medal � third place 2007 Salt Lake City 3000 m
Cindy Klassen, OM (born August 12, 1979) is a retired Canadian long track speed
skater. She is a six-time medalist having achieved one gold, two silver, three
bronze at the Winter Olympics. Klassen is tied with Clara Hughes for Canada's all-
time most decorated Olympian with six medals each. Both Klassen and Hughes are from
Winnipeg.

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 in Turin, Italy.[1] She is the current world record holder in the
3000 m.[2] She also holds the Canadian records over 1500 m and 5000 m.[3][4]
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.[3]

Klassen has several major awards and accolades to her name having won the Lou Marsh
Trophy in 2006, which is awarded for Canada's best athlete of the year. Due to her
tremendous accomplishments at the 2006 Winter Olympics and her many accomplishments
throughout her career, Klassen was named to the Order of Manitoba.[5] Klassen was
awarded the Oscar Mathisen Award in 2006 for outstanding speed skating performance
of the year. In 2007, she was given the award for Female Athlete of the Year at the
Canadian Sports Awards.[3] Klassen won the 2005 and 2006 Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as
female athlete of the year as presented from the Canadian Press.[3] She was also
tipped as Speed Skating Canada's 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2007 Female Skater of the
Year for long track speed skating.[3] 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.[6]

Contents
1 Career
1.1 Record success
1.2 Surgery and the 2010 Olympics
1.3 Return from injury and retirement
2 Post retirement from sports
3 Results
3.1 Medals
3.2 Awards
4 Records
4.1 World records
5 See also
6 References
7 External links
Career
Klassen started her sports career as an ice hockey player at Gateway Community Club
in Winnipeg; in her youth she played for the Canadian national youth team. When she
was not selected for the 1998 Winter Olympics, she switched to speed skating and
soon she proved to be a natural talent.

Klassen missed the entire 2003�04 season due to a serious injury: she fell during
training, colliding with another skater, hitting his skate, and as a result cutting
twelve tendons in her right arm.

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 2006 Winter Olympics, Klassen was considered one of the favourites
following her allround title in 2003 and two world distance titles in 2005.[7]
Klassen started out in Turin by winning a silver in the 1000 m, narrowly missing
out on gold.[8] Following this silver Klassen became Olympic champion in the 1500
m. She followed this thrilling gold with a silver in the women's team pursuit, and
bronze in the 3000 m and 5000 m.[8] 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."[8]

Klassen became the first Canadian to win five medals in one Olympic Games. With
this achievement, she tied American Eric Heiden's record of five medals won at an
Olympics (1980) by a speed skater. At the same time, she overtook the previous
Canadian record of most medals (three) in 1984, held by Ga�tan 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.[1] Combined with
her bronze medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics, she became the first Canadian to win
six career Olympic medals, surpassing the five medal mark set previously by Marc
Gagnon and Phil Edwards and matched in the same race by winner Clara Hughes at the
same 2006 Winter Olympic games.[8]

After her success at the Turin 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".[9] 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 about $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 and
teammate Clara Hughes.[1]

Surgery and the 2010 Olympics

Cindy Klassen during the 2007 World Championships

In preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, 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.[10] She also said that she will only
focus on the World Single Distance Championships. Defending her all-around title
and high World Cup classifications are not her main goal for the season.[11][12]
Later that year in July 2008 Klassen had surgery to repair damage done to her knees
over her career and in high school basketball.[13] 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 her knees would stop
degenerating would be for Klassen to stop speed skating.[14]

On January 5, 2010, the Royal Canadian Mint announced that they were minting 22
million Canadian quarters with an image of Klassen in a speed skating pose on it. 3
million of the quarters were minted with a red maple leaf 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.[15]

Coming back from double knee-surgery and two years off of skating, Klassen's main
goal at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver was simply to compete. Klassen saying
that "My goal is just to qualify. To get there would be great."[16] 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.[17] 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.[17]

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."[18] At the first meet of the World Cup season Klassen
got her first individual podium result since the 2007�08 season.[19] Klassen
finished second in the 3000 m and followed that placing up with a fourth-place
finish in the 1500 m the next day.
Despite the pain and fatigue from injuries, a further competitive gear was found
for Klassen as part of the women's team pursuit. She became a part of the team that
first won gold at the 2011 World Championships and then came back at the 2012
Worlds to win a silver as repeat medalists.[20] 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."[21]

Post retirement from sports

After retirement from sports, she has finished a degree in psychology and joined
the Calgary Police Service as a constable.[22]

Results
Medals
2002
Bronze medal 3000 m at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City
2003
World allround champion
2005
World champion 1500 m and 3000 m at the World Single Distance Championships
Silver medal at the World allround championships
2006
Gold medal and Olympic champion 1500 m at the Winter Olympics in Turin
Bronze medal 3000 m at the Winter Olympics in Turin
Silver medal Team Pursuit at the Winter Olympics in Turin
Silver medal 1000 m at the Winter Olympics in Turin
Bronze medal 5000 m at the Winter Olympics in Turin
World allround champion
2007
Bronze medal at the WM Sprint Championships
Bronze medal at the World allround championships
Awards
2005
Winner of the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as Canadian female Athlete of the Year
2006
Winner of the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canadian Athlete of the Year
Winner of the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as Canadian female Athlete of the Year
2008
Featured on a special edition of the 2009 25 cent Canadian coin. She is one of the
few living people (other than a reigning monarch) to be featured on coinage.
2017
Inducted into the Canada's Sports Hall of Fame[23]
Records
As of 2015, she is the current holder of the world record in the 3000 m and is also
the leader of the Adelskalender, the all-time world ranking.

Personal records[24]
Women's speed skating
Event Result Date Location Notes
500 m 37.51 March 18, 2006 Olympic Oval, Calgary
1000 m 1:13.11 March 25, 2006 Olympic Oval, Calgary
1500 m 1:51.79 November 20, 2005 Utah Olympic Oval, Salt Lake City Former
world record[2]
3000 m 3:53.34 March 18, 2006 Olympic Oval, Calgary Current world
record[2]
5000 m 6:48.97 March 19, 2006 Olympic Oval, Calgary Current Canadian
record[4]
10000 m 15:17.63 March 25, 2002 Thialf, Heerenveen
World records
Event Time Date Venue
Mini combination 155.576 March 15�17, 2001 Calgary
Small combination 159.723 January 25�26, 2003 Salt Lake City
1500 m 1:53.87 January 9, 2005 Salt Lake City
Small combination 159.605 January 8�9, 2005 Salt Lake City
1500 m 1:53.77 October 28, 2005 Calgary
3000 m 3:55.75 November 12, 2005 Calgary
1500 m 1:51.79 November 20, 2005 Salt Lake City
Small combination 157.177 January 21�22, 2006 Calgary
3000 m 3:53.34 March 18, 2006 Calgary
Small combination 154.580 March 18�19, 2006 Calgary
1000 m 1:13.46 March 24, 2006 Calgary
1000 m 1:13.11 March 25, 2006 Calgary
Sprint combination 149.305 March 24�25, 2006 Calgary
Mini combination 155.456 December 28�30, 2006 Calgary
Mini combination 154.543 November 11, 2007 Salt Lake City
Source: SpeedSkatingStats.com.[25]

See also
List of multiple Olympic medalists at a single Games
List of multiple Winter Olympic medalists
German Canadian
References
"Klassen wins Lou Marsh Award". CBC News. December 11, 2006. Retrieved 2010-02-26.
"World Records". www.speedskatingresults.com. Retrieved December 26, 2013.
"Speed Skating Canada Bio". Archived from the original on 2011-07-17. Retrieved
2010-10-14.
"National Records". www.speedskatingresults.com. Retrieved December 28, 2013.
"Prestigious Sport Award to be Presented to Cindy Klassen". Retrieved 2010-10-14.
"Mint Releases 25-Cent Coin Celebrating Cindy Klassen's Five Medals in Long-Track
Speed Skating in 2006". Mint.ca. Retrieved 2010-01-05.
"Cindy Klassen Biography and Olympic Results". Sports Reference. February 26,
2010. Archived from the original on February 21, 2012. Retrieved 2010-11-08.
"Klassen becomes Canada's greatest Olympian". CTV News. December 11, 2006.
Archived from the original on March 22, 2012. Retrieved 2010-11-08.
CBC: "Canada: Olympic powerhouse?" Retrieved June 7, 2007.
Klassen cancels skating season to care for sister Archived 2011-05-20 at the
Wayback Machine.
Olympic champion Cindy Klassen delays start to speed skating season[permanent dead
link], topix.net
Cindy Klassen neemt even pauze Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine., nos.nl
"Cindy Klassen on road to recovery after knee surgery". Canadian Press. January
11, 2009. Retrieved 2010-02-26.
"Klassen skating through the pain". Toronto Star. October 23, 2009. Retrieved
2010-02-28.
"Mint honours speedskater Cindy Klassen with coin". CBC News. January 5, 2010.
Retrieved 2010-02-26.
"Klassen has long way to go, short time to get there". Edmonton Journal. December
7, 2009. Retrieved 2010-02-26.
"Klassen, named pursuit team alternate, faces questions about future after Games".
Winnipeg Free Press. 2010-02-26.
John Downs (October 21, 2010). "Klassen qualifies for World Cup speed skating
team". The Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 2010-11-08.
 "Klassen wins silver at speedskating World Cup". CBC Sports. November 13, 2010.
Retrieved 2010-08-14.
"Canadian women grab silver at speedskating worlds". CBC Sports. March 25, 2012.
Retrieved August 19, 2012.
"Cindy Klassen, Canadian speed skating legend, retires". CBC Sports. June 20,
2015.
http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/former-speed-skater-cindy-klassen-now-
patrolling-city-streets
"Canada's Sports Hall of Fame". Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. Retrieved 10
November 2017.
"Cindy Klassen". www.speedskatingresults.com. Retrieved January 17, 2014.
"Cindy Klassen". SpeedSkatingStats.com. Retrieved January 17, 2014.
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
Awards
Preceded by
United States Shani Davis Oscar Mathisen Award
2006 Succeeded by
Netherlands Sven Kramer
[show] v t e
Recipients of the Lou Marsh Trophy
[show] v t e
Leaders of the Adelskalender, women
[show] v t e
Olympic champions in women's 1500 m speed skating
[show] v t e
World champions in women's 1500 m speed skating
[show] v t e
World champions in women's 3000 m speed skating
[show] v t e
World champions in women's team pursuit
[show] v t e
World champions in women's allround speed skating

Categories: 1979 birthsCanadian women's ice hockey playersLou Marsh Trophy

winnersOlympic gold medalists for CanadaOlympic silver medalists for CanadaOlympic
bronze medalists for CanadaOlympic speed skaters of CanadaSpeed skaters at the 2002
Winter OlympicsSpeed skaters at the 2006 Winter OlympicsSpeed skaters at the 2010
Winter OlympicsSportspeople from WinnipegMembers of the Order of ManitobaLiving
peopleOlympic medalists in speed skatingCanadian female speed skatersMedalists at
the 2006 Winter OlympicsMedalists at the 2002 Winter OlympicsCanada's Sports Hall
of Fame inducteesCanadian women police officers
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