Cindy Klassen biography
Cindy Klassen, (born August 12, 1979, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada), Canadian pace skater who captured 5 medals on the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy, essentially the most gained by a Canadian athlete at a single Olympics.
Klassen was interested in sports activities at an early age and shortly developed into considered one of Canada’s most versatile athletes. She competed within the 1999 Pan American Games as an in-line pace skater, performed for the junior nationwide ice hockey crew in 1996, and was a member of Canada’s lacrosse crew when the game was an indication sport on the 1994 Commonwealth Games. She took up long-track pace skating at age 18 whereas attending the University of Manitoba and gained a spot on the Canadian crew for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, the place she gained a bronze within the 3,000 metres. Prior to the beginning of the 2003–04 season, Klassen suffered a freak accident throughout a coaching session when she misplaced an edge whereas rounding a flip. She crashed into one other skater, whose skate blade minimize a 4-inch (10-cm) gash in Klassen’s arm that resulted in a severed artery, nerve injury, and a dozen torn tendons. By March 2004, nevertheless, Klassen had recovered sufficient to take two medals on the world single-distance championships.
After setting 4 world speed-skating information in 2005, when she was named Canada’s feminine Athlete of the Year, Klassen arrived in Turin, Italy, for the 2006 Winter Olympics underneath the burden of heavy fan expectations. She simply dealt with the strain, nevertheless, profitable 5 medals to emerge because the Games’ most profitable lady and because the most-decorated Canadian Olympian of all time. She captured a gold medal within the 1,500 metres, silver medals within the team-pursuit occasion and the 1,000 metres, and bronze medals within the 3,000 metres and 5,000 metres. Her efficiency mirrored power, stamina, and the excessive diploma of psychological toughness that her followers had come to anticipate.
Less than a month later, on the world all-around championships in Calgary, Alberta, Klassen gained all 4 distances, added a world file within the 3,000 metres, and captured the general title with a world file complete of 154.580 factors. Possibly her most interesting efficiency of the 12 months, nevertheless, was on March 25 on the season finale in Calgary, when she completed the ladies’s 1,000 metres on this planet file time of 1 min 13.11 sec. Her time broke the world customary of 1 min 13.46 sec, which she had set in a trial warmth sooner or later earlier.
In 2008 Klassen underwent surgical procedure on each of her knees, and the restoration stored her away from skating for 2 years. She returned in time to qualify for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the place she did not medal in 4 occasions and her finest end was twelfth place within the 5,000 metres. Other accidents prevented her from collaborating within the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and she or he retired from aggressive skating in June 2015.