BEIJING, China — Canada’s Olympians have made it to the podium several times since the start of the Beijing Winter Games, but by Tuesday only one had made it to the top step.

After an eight-day wait, Canada won its second gold medal with the women’s pursuit team in long track speed skating.

Valérie Maltais of Saguenay and Ottawa’s Ivanie Blondin and Isabelle Weidemann joined forces to defeat Japan in the A final of the event with an Olympic record passing time of 2 minutes 53.44 seconds.

Japan had a slight lead around the final corner, but Nana Takagi lost her balance and fell into the protective pads, allowing Canada to race to victory.

Weidemann now has a medal of all colors in Beijing. She won silver in the 5,000 meters and bronze in the 3,000 m.

While Canada has struggled to claim gold so far, it has a total of 17 medals (2 gold, 4 silver, 11 bronze) heading into the final events on the program on Tuesday.

Snowboarder Maxence Parrot offered Canada’s first gold medal on February 7 when he won the freestyle downhill event. If the Bromontois could not reproduce his performance in the big jump, he nevertheless deserved the bronze medal, providing Canada with a sixth medal in snowboarding.

The 27-year-old crashed on his first jump, but landed a stunning 1800 on his second attempt. And his 1620 (four and a half rotations) on his third jump was enough to get him on the podium.

“After (the first run) I was extremely disappointed, disappointed with myself because I landed it several times in practice and I knew I could do it,” Parrot said. I was just a bit out of gear and had a lot of pressure going into the second and third runs.

“On my second try I tried to concentrate as best I could and managed to land my 1800, the best I’ve done all week and landed a 94. I was proud of that. »

Saskatchewan’s Mark McMorris was 10th and British Columbia’s Darcy Sharpe was 12th.

17-year-old Chinese star Su Yiming set the tone, landing 1800 forwards and backwards on her first two jumps to win gold.

Norwegian Mons Roisland won the silver medal, overtaking Parrot on his last jump.

Earlier Tuesday in the women’s high jump event, Ontarian Jasmine Baird was seventh and Laurie Blouin of Stoneham just missed landing on her final jump and settled for eighth.

“I gave what I could give,” said Blouin, who finished just off the podium in slopestyle last week. It didn’t quite work out the way I wanted it to. It could have been worse. Life goes on. »

Blouin was content with 12th place in the long jump in 2018, at the Pyeongchang Games, after winning silver in the slopestyle.

In the final of the event slopestyle ladies, 17-year-old skier Olivia Asselin made only one run, her first, and she collected only 16.83 points. She did not start during the last two runs of the final.

Asselin officially took 11th place out of 12 skiers, although American Marin Hamill, seriously injured in her right leg in her second qualifying run the day before, did not start the final.

A spokesperson for Freestyle Canada spoke of a slight knee injury, while Asselin had also noted great mental fatigue the day before. This is her first career Olympics.

Good result in biathlon

In the 4 x 7.5 km biathlon relay, Canada achieved its best ever performance in this event by securing sixth place. Sherbrooke’s Jules Burnotte and Albertans Scott Gow, Christian Gow and Adam Runnalls finished 1:56.3 behind gold medalist Norway.

In the women’s downhill, Marie-Michèle Gagnon of Lac-Etchemin placed eighth and Ontario’s Roni Remme finished 24th.

“I’m happy and proud of my performance, but I still don’t understand how I could have been so far from the leader,” said Gagnon.

Canada’s strong streak in men’s curling continued when Brad Gushue defeated China 10-8.

Team Canada gave themselves a great option for victory when they scored three in the eighth end to take a 9-6 lead. After watching China close the gap, Gushue and his men closed the books in the 10th and final end.

“I just tried to focus on what I had to do,” explained Gushue. I shot well. They weren’t hard shots. So I made sure to keep things simple. »

Canada (5-2) posted a third straight win and moved into third place in the overall standings heading into their match against Russia later in the day. The first four teams will qualify for the semi-finals.

Also at the end of the day, Madeline Schizas, impressive in her Olympic debut in the team competition, will perform her short program of the individual competition.

In the men’s hockey tournament, Canada must defeat China to earn their place in the quarter-finals. And the last two rounds of two-man bobsleigh are presented with three Canadian crews entered in the competition.