Courtney Sarault of Moncton, New Brunswick is now an individual Olympic medalist. Two days after winning an Olympic silver medal in the 2000 metre mixed relay event in short track speed skating, Sarault won the Olympic bronze medal in the women’s 500 metre short track speed skating event on Thursday.
Sarault had a third place time of 42.427 seconds. Xandra Velzboer of the Netherlands won the gold medal with a time of 41.609 seconds. Arianna Fontana of Italy won the silver medal with a time of 42.294. Sarault reached the podium by 0.064 seconds over Selma Poutsma of the Netherlands. Poutsma had a fourth place time of 42.491. In the final, Sarault had a great finish after not the best of starts.
During the World Cup circuit this season, Sarault finished in second place with 240 points. Velzeboer was the World Cup champion in the distance with 300 points. However, Sarault did come through with a win in Dordrecht, Netherlands in November.
Canada has now won seven Olympic medals in Milan/Cortina d’Ampezzo. They have three silver medals and four bronze medals. Sarault will still be a medal contender in the women’s 1000 metres (February 16), women’s 3000 metres relay (February 18) and women’s 1500 metres (February 20). The possibility of Sarault winning five Olympic medals is still there.