In a triumphant return of the ISU Speed Skating World Championships to the world’s fastest ice, aka Calgary’s Olympic Oval, after a 25-year hiatus, Canadian speed skaters leaped to the top of the country rankings on day one of competition.

Team Canada took a pair of gold medals in the Women’s and Men’s team sprints on Feb. 15, while fan favourite Isabelle Weidemann took silver in the Women’s 3000-metre race.

The Women’s sprint team was made up of racers Carolina Hiller, Maddison Pearman, and Ivanie Blondin, who captured a 0.9 second lead over Team USA with a 1:25.14 finish.

Canadians Anders Johnson, Laurent Dubreuil, and Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu clinched the Men’s team sprint finish, and a new world record, with a photo-finish 0.002 second lead over their Dutch rivals at 1:17.17.

“When we came across the line, there was a bit of a delay before the times were posted, but when I saw we were first it was an exhilarating moment. I cannot describe the feeling,” said Gélinas-Beaulieu.

The Olympic Oval has been home to several world records over the years, including that of gold medal Olympian Catriona Le May Doan, who had her own world record year a quarter century ago by becoming the first woman to break the 37.9 second barrier in the 500 metre sprint, and then breaking it again by setting a blistering fast time of 37.55 seconds.

She set an even higher record time of 37.22 seconds in 2001, again in Calgary.

Le May Doan said that it’s a bittersweet thing for a record to be broken—but reflected that while records are supplanted, athletes never cease to be champions.

“It’s nice to have your name in a record book, but you know, you’re also never a former Olympian. You’re always an Olympian. You’re always world champion,” she said.

Although Le May Doan’s record in Calgary was eventually beaten 20 years later by Japanese speed skater Nao Kodaira during the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, she still holds the Canadian Women’s record.

“It’s funny, because even before this weekend, I said to my kids, well, maybe mom’s Canadian record will be broken because it’s been going since 2001. They said, ‘well, hopefully not.’ It’s funny from their perspective, but you want to see that continued growth within the sport, and in the women’s 500 is probably one area where we’ve struggled a little bit.”