After Beijing disappointment, Canada’s Brunelle returns to Olympics with new outlook

Florence Brunelle realized a childhood goal by reaching the Olympics.

Yet when she returned home from the Beijing 2022 Games, she was miserable.

“I’ve accomplished my dream, and I feel unhappy, so why would I pursue what I’m pursuing?” she thought at the time. “I lost my purpose.”

At 18, Brunelle was the youngest-ever short-track speedskater to make Canada’s Olympic team. She was a multi-time world junior medallist who had rarely experienced failure while racing toward the top of her sport.

As Brunelle recalls, “things were going really fast.” A little too fast.

And then in front of the Beijing crowd, she hit a wall.

In the mixed relay final, Canada was tied for third with seven laps remaining when Brunelle clipped a Hungarian opponent, and both skaters slid out.

Canada not only missed the podium, but a penalty bumped the country from fourth to sixth place. Brunelle blamed herself for letting her teammates down, even though falls are common in short-track.

The Olympic disappointment sent her on a soul-searching mission. Grappling with teenage angst, she left the ice and tended to her mental health most of the following season.

“I knew I loved sports, I knew I loved being an athlete, but then I was still a teenager, and I wasn’t sure if it was really my choice to do all of this,” she said. “If I sit down and I’m like, what do I want to do with my life, is that the answer?”

Brunelle spent the next couple of years on a personal quest to find out. She met weekly with a psychologist in what she described as a two-year class on learning how to manage her emotions.

Now 22, the Trois-Rivières, Que., skater is back on the Olympic stage at the Milan Cortina Games, buoyed by a fresh perspective on what success means to her.

“I realized, ‘Oh, I don’t want to quit skating,’” she said. “The unhappiness doesn’t come from skating, it comes from how I see things and how I value myself and how I choose to give importance to the wrong thing.”

Rather than focusing on podium finishes, Brunelle is enjoying the daily grind with her teammates on Canada’s top-ranked short-track roster.

“She’s at a really good place,” head coach Marc Gagnon said. “We won’t hide it, four years ago were not good Games for Florence, and it was hard mentally for her. She had big challenges and had to overcome some stuff during the last four years … stuff that will still be challenging for her once we get to the (Milan Cortina) Olympic Games.

“But I think she has developed the tools now to really deal with that.”

Brunelle’s shift in outlook paid off in a breakout 2024-25 season, when she won the Canadian women’s national title and captured her first ISU World Tour victory in the 500-metre distance in Tilburg, Netherlands. She also helped Canada claim two relay gold medals at the world championships.

“I feel really calm today … I feel so safe and good,” she said. “It’s really cool to improve in that environment, and to be here surrounded by such great athletes, it makes you want to push even more every day.”

A recurring hernia in her lower back limited her summer training, leading to a slow start this season, but she finished strong with a 500-metre bronze in late November at the final World Tour stop in Dordrecht, Netherlands.

“I believe the level of competition this year got a little higher on the women’s side, so in my vision, she’s a little stronger than last year,” Gagnon said. “Honestly, for me, everything’s possible with Florence.”

Short-track competition runs Feb. 10 to 20 at Milano Ice Skating Arena.

Brunelle knows stepping back onto Olympic ice will be challenging. She says she’ll be vulnerable. But the years of reflection and preparation, she believes, have given her the tools to face those big moments.

“I feel like I will really be able to say, ‘Oh, I prepared for this, and I can be proud of myself, whatever the outcome is,’” she said. “I’m passionate about this. I want do this for so many years.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 8, 2026.