Charles Hamelin, the only Canadian short track speed skater with multiple individual Olympic titles, isn’t retiring after this weekend’s world championships after all.
“Since I’ve returned from the Olympics, I feel like I’m in great shape and I’ve been coming up with new personal bests in training,” Hamelin said in a Wednesday press release. “So I’ve thought about all that and, today, I’m announcing that I am postponing my retirement and that I’ve decided to come back for at least another year. I believe I still have something to give to the new generation of skaters, to the sport of short track and to Canada. I’m looking forward to being in the thick of things this weekend, to representing Canada proudly and to contribute to the team’s medal haul.
“I don’t want to have any regrets in my mind or my heart about the sport,” Hamelin added, according to the Canadian Press. “If I was to quit after these world championships I would have had regrets.”
Hamelin, 33, headlines the Canadian team for worlds in Montreal beginning with qualifying Friday.
Hamelin said before the PyeongChang Olympics, his fourth Winter Games, that he would retire after this season.
Hamelin then struggled individually in South Korea, failing to finish in the top five in any individual race for the first time at an Olympics.
He did break the Olympic record in the 1000m heats and earn a bronze in the relay, giving him five Olympic medals to match retired François-Louis Tremblay and Marc Gagnon for the Canadian short track record. Hamelin also became the oldest male Olympic short track medalist.
Two weeks after the Olympics, Hamelin and his fiancée since 2014, three-time Olympian Marianne St-Gelais, announced their breakup. Hamelin had talked in PyeongChang of starting a family with St-Gelais.
St-Gelais and Hamelin’s younger brother, Francois, have said they will retire after worlds.
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