Chart by Nett Racing from Speed Skating Canada, the ISU and the Canadian Olympic Committee.
Nathalie Lambert of Montreal is the first person named to the Speed Skating Canada Hall of Fame in both the athlete and builder categories. Her new place came at a Montreal ceremony on October 31, while the ISU Short Track World Tour was in town.
A champion on the ice
Her first place in the Hall of Fame, for her racing, came while she was still competing, in the year of her first overall world title. At those worlds she won the 1000 m, 1500 m and 3000 m, and she took the overall crown twice more. At the Olympics she won gold with the Canadian 3000 m relay in Albertville, then silver twice in Lillehammer, in the 1000 m and the relay.
Olympic medals
Nathalie Lambert at the Olympics
Games
Event
Medal
Albertville
3000 m relay
Gold
Lillehammer
1000 m
Silver
Lillehammer
3000 m relay
Silver
Building the sport
The builder honor is for her work after racing. She was the first woman on a speed skating technical committee of the ISU, and she spent 16 years on its short track committee, more than 10 of them as chair. Under her the rules changed to make racing safer, and she helped bring in the mixed relay, first raced at the Beijing Winter Olympics, and the Crystal Globe for the World Tour season winners, a man, a woman and a team. This summer the ISU made her its first speed skating Head of Officials.
Leading Team Canada
Lambert was Canada's assistant chef de mission in Athens, at the Summer Olympics, and then led the team as its chef de mission when the Winter Olympics came to Vancouver. She is also an analyst on short track broadcasts and has given years of volunteer time to Canadian Olympic Committee groups and skating meets.
What she said
Lambert said the builder honor makes her even prouder than her first, since it tells her that her work since racing has helped the skaters of today and those still to come.
