Speed skater Heather McLean ready to take on her second Olympics

Heather McLean’s Olympic competition will last about 38 seconds after years of training when she competes in speed skating at Beijing 2022.

“It does get a little mentally exhausting because you do want to stay healthy. You want to be performing your best, you always want to have it in the back of your mind, the Olympic games,” said Mclean.

The 29-year-old from Winnipeg will be representing Canada for the second time at the winter Olympic Games.

The speed skater was overcome with emotions when finally getting to Beijing last week and has been open about how emotionality exhausting it is to prepare.

McLean said this time around, her second time, she’s been making an effort to enjoy it as much as possible. “It can get a little mentally fatiguing so when you actually get to the games you are so worn out, so I’ve tried to make a real effort to stay present and enjoy my training everyday and every competition, so I don’t put so much pressure on the Olympics.”

“[In] my first games, I was quite a bit younger. So, I was more excited. In terms of the whole Olympic environment, seeing all the other athletes in the Olympic village and everything. And now that I’ve experienced that I feel a little bit more calm,” McLean said. “I’m more excited for the actual competition itself this time, and I feel more confident that I’ll be able to manage everything else.”

McLean add it’s been tough to get excited as there was so much leading up to the games, including making sure everyone was healthy enough to actually travel amid competition during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I felt really relieved because we have spent a lot of time traveling and it was really tough to stay healthy traveling around the world and to qualify the spots for our country in order to be able to compete at the game. So, it was almost a relief because we stayed healthy, we qualified the spots that we needed, and then [came the] excitement.”

She calls Calgary home now says she is finding passion in her preparation. “Definitely the sprint training on ice brings me so much joy and I have to remember that going into the games I have to remember to have fun and enjoy what I’m really good at and enjoy the experience.” She added her coach has especially been a big help with that.

“My coach reminded me … because we get so hyper focused on everything we need to work on. She said, ‘Relax and have fun, when you’re skating enjoy the feeling of getting a lot of pressure into the ice and enjoy going fast.’ And she said that to me at the beginning of a practice and I had a lot of fun and I felt really good on ice.”

The elite athlete who is part of a squad of several female Olympic athletes sponsored by Cadillac Fairview says this year she is taken her job as a role model to young girls seriously.

“I’ve definitely grown into and grown more comfortable with the idea of being a role model and being out in the public. I think when I was younger and at my first games it was it was something that I didn’t totally embrace. I really wanted to prove myself with my results and what I was capable of,” shared McLean. “I didn’t embrace that role. But now I realize how important it is.”

She has also been working on finding calm and joy in things outside of her sport that brings a lot of joy to fellow Canadians, including gardening.

“I love houseplants, like my house is just, I have house plants everywhere,” shared Mclean excitedly. She even names them, usually after athletes and musicians.

When asked if she would like plant named after herself, McLean exclaimed, “That would be the dream.”

Mclean will be competing in the Women’s 500m on Sunday just before 9 a.m.