Since she left speed skating six years ago and began dabbling in broadcasting, Catriona Le May Doan has grown accustomed to asking the questions,
rather than answering them. But as she sat in the broadcast booth in Richmond, B.C., this spring for the world single distances championships, a contingent of Dutch sportscasters put her back on the hot seat. As the only Canadian to ever repeat as a gold medalist in two consecutive Olympics, Le May Doan was always dominant in the 500 metres, her specialty. Why, then, the Dutch prodded, would the legendary skater not want to put down the headset and hit the ice again It hasn’t been that long. “They were bugging me to come out of retirement,” says the 38-year-old Le May Doan. “They said to me, ‘You know, Catriona, you could be top five.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, but I don’t want to compete any more.’.” Le May Doan has indeed unlaced her skates for good after a career that spanned three Olympic medals, including gold medals in the 500m at Nagano in 1998 and Salt Lake in 2002, and a bronze in the 1000m at Nagano. Her two children, born after Le May Doan retired from competition, and her roles with various sports organizations now take up most of her time. But what the Dutch announcers didn’t know in March – and what Le May Doan didn’t even realize herself at the time – is that she may have found a new sport.
After hearing she would take part as a celebrity entrant in the Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic Nationwide Tour pro-am in Collingwood, Ont., this July, she immediately enrolled in golf lessons and began hitting the course on a regular basis. “I was a little nervous,” she admits. “This is the first summer I’ve golfed a lot.”