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Charles Hamelin (CAN) pictured during the 2022 ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Championships in Montreal (CAN). @ISU

Life after competition: Hamelin shines as father, businessman and author

People in the park do often stop and stare. Many approach, and after a bashful “hello”, they are delighted to discover that the man with a five-month-old in his arms and a toddler hanging off his hand is indeed Canada’s equal most decorated Olympian of all time.

“Sometimes, and I don’t know whether it is true or not, they (say) ‘Oh I recognised the girls before the Daddy’,” Short Track Speed Skating legend Charles Hamelin said, with an infectious laugh.

“They always want to say thank you, to thank me for what I did and I am like ‘I’ve done what I love the most in my life – before being a dad – so it’s a pleasure’.”

Charles Hamelin (CAN) pictured with his daughter during the 2022 ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Championships in Montreal (CAN).  @ISU

Now, 17 months after winning his fourth Olympic gold medal at the ripe age of 37, the first male skater to win a medal at five different Olympic Games has taken on full-time parenting while his wife, a top-level sports journalist, returns to work.

“It’s two different types of focusing, trying to manage the energy,” Hamelin said as he attempted to compare the challenge of looking after two kids under the age of four with fighting for an Olympic medal.  

Charles Hamelin (CAN) competing during the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing (CHN). @ISU

“Both are pretty demanding. One is for life, (no) both are for life, but you are caring for your child for your whole life. For me to have two children is the nicest thing that could have happened to me.”

Setting an example

Hamelin has taken parental leave from his job as a Director of Operations for a company that manages leisure facilities, including ice rinks and cross-country skiing tracks. This has allowed his wife to focus on her own Olympic opportunity; next summer she will head to Paris as a host for Radio Canada.

So, while the 39-year-old Hamelin is getting so much out of it – “she (the baby) understands me a lot more and I understand her a lot more” – he does recognise that he is setting an example which society still needs.

“It is new, people are starting to discover ‘yes, I am the man but I can take that parental leave’, (or) a part of at least,” the Quebec native said.

“Some mothers, most mothers, have a professional life and they don’t want to quit so long that people forget them and when they come back they are not as comfortable as they were before.

“It’s teamwork, as I did in my whole career in Short Track. Being a wife and a husband with two kids is teamwork. You give and you receive.”

Mission Accomplished

His two daughters were high up on the agenda when Hamelin decided to pull together his autobiography, "Mission Accomplished".

Throughout his remarkable final season 2021-22, where it looked like Hamelin was continually writing his own scripts, the Canadian was in fact pouring out his heart to renowned Quebec journalist Luc Bellemare.

The end result, recently published, is going down a storm in French-speaking Canada, with plans for an English-language version soon. While it was initially done for the kids – “the main reason I did it was to explain to my little girls, my family that put up with me, the crazy, young Charles and what I did with my young life” – it also had a much appreciated side-effect.

“It helped me in my last year to stay focused, to stay grounded, to go back to why I was skating,” Hamelin explained. “At the Olympics I was talking to Luc every two days. I talked to him (about) everything I was feeling, (about) everything I was doing.

“He was kind of my psychologist. I talked to him about everything in my life. I wanted to give it all to him… funny stuff, sad stuff. I was angry sometimes talking to him, not at him but at the moment I was talking about. I was anxious sometimes. I felt every emotion talking to him.

“I think that’s the reason why I was OK. I passed (on) all those emotions (by) talking about what had happened in the past and then it was finished.”

Short Track forever

After more than two decades in the sport, Hamelin ended his remarkable career with barely believable numbers: six Olympic medals, 38 World Championship gongs, including 13 golds, and 58 World Cup titles.

Given that, it is perhaps not surprising that one part of his future is crystal clear.

“I know I will come back at some point to Short Track,” Hamelin said, the smile as wide as his face.

Charles Hamelin (CAN) competes during the 2022 ISU World Short Track Championships in Montreal (CAN). @ISU

His current job, to which he is completely committed, does involve skating rinks, while he also continues to run Nagano Skate, the company he set up with five others including his brother. But at some point the world’s best Short Track skaters will be seeing a whole lot more of the man who inspired many of them.

“I don’t know how, is it going to be as a coach, as a director, as a member of the board, on the federation side. I don’t want to think about that right now. But I want to go back for sure,” he said.

“I received so much from Short Track, I want to give back to the sport I love so much.”