Speedskating Sweetheart Clara Hughes Grabs Bronze In Final Race Of Her Career

Clara Hughes jogged one last victory lap Wednesday, wearing the Maple Leaf like Superman’s cape, as Canada’s flag-bearer wrapped up her sparkling speedskating career with an Olympic bronze medal in the women’s 5,000 metres.

Hughes, from Glen Sutton, Que., blistered the ice at the Richmond Olympic Oval, only to watch helplessly as her track record was surpassed by winner Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic and Germany’s Stephanie Beckert.

Kristina Groves of Ottawa was sixth and Cindy Klassen of Winnipeg was 12th.

The third-place finish gave Hughes, 37, her sixth Olympic medal, including two as a speedskater in Turin, Italy, in 2006, one in Salt Lake City in 2002 and two as a cyclist in the Summer Games in Atlanta in 1996.

She’s the only Canadian athlete to ever claim multiple medals at both the Winter and Summer Games.

Despite Wednesday’s medal, it would have taken a truckload of Olympic talismans to distract Canada from the day’s main event: a clash of hockey titans between the Canadians, led by Sidney Crosby, and Alexander Ovechkin’s gang of Russian snipers.

The winner goes on to the semifinals. The loser goes home.

Crosby is tied for Team Canada’s scoring lead with six points, while Ovechkin has made his mark in Vancouver with bone-crushing bodychecks, including a vicious open-ice hit on Jaromir Jagr of the Czech Republic.

Crosby and the Canadians will be keeping their heads up when Ovechkin is on the ice.

“It’s going to be tough, it’s going to be a battle,” Crosby said. “I don’t expect us to be intimidated.”

There was a good chance Wednesday that Hughes’ medal would not be the only one of the day.

At the Whistler Sliding Centre, Kaillie Humphries and Heather Loyse were sitting atop the standings in the women’s two-man bobsled.

Humphries, from Calgary, and Moyse, of Summerside, P.E.I., led both heats Tuesday at a top speed of 146.9 kilometres an hour. Calgary’s Helen Upperton, with Shelley-Ann Brown on the brakes, were fourth, less than half a second back.

Canada was also contending in the speedskating finals on the short track in the women’s 3,000-metre relay.

On the slopes, weather woes were playing havoc with the final alpine skiing events as the second run of the women’s giant slalom race was postponed because of a thick fog that covered the Franz’s course, reducing visibility and making it too dangerous to race.

A giant slalom has two runs. The person with the best combined time wins.

Austria’s Elisabeth Goergl had the fastest time in the first run, while U.S. star Lindsey Vonn crashed out. The top Canadian was Shona Rubens of Canmore, Alta., in 22nd.

Vonn lost control around a right turn on the top half of the course, got twisted around, landed hard on her left hip and crashed backward into the safety netting.

“I was fighting, really attacking,” she said. “I’m just disappointed in myself. I went a little bit to inside and lost the outside ski.”

The only Canadian to ever win a giant-slalom Olympic medal was Nancy Greene, who won gold in 1968. The best women’s result since was a fourth by Laurie Kreiner at the 1972 Sapporo Games.

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