Brooklyn McDougall’s parents are going to need a bigger trophy case.
On the warmest day of competition at the long track speed skating oval at Setters Place, which was also the final day, McDougall tied a tidy bow on her masterful week.
The 20-year-old Calgary native won silver on Wednesday in the 1000 metre race, and almost collected a sixth in the mass start where she finished fourth just behind Rose-Anne Grenier and Emmanuelle Côté of Québec.
McDougall was more than satisfied to collect her handful of medals which included two gold, two silver and a bronze, mostly because it was something she never fully anticipated coming into the games last week.
“I am so surprised with the energy of the entire games. I knew it was going to be exciting, just the energy around the oval has been incredible. My goal was to bring home some hardware for Alberta, but it went even better than I expected,” McDougall said.
In her silver medal win Wednesday, McDougall said she ran out of gas near the end, but was proud to support Alberta and get up on the podium for the fifth time this week.
“I had a strong first 600m I hit a wall in the last lap, I was pretty tired feeling it from the weekend. Overall, I’m super happy with how the entire week panned and I couldn’t have asked for anything more,” she said.
A late arrival to the Games also had a huge impact on the podium during the final few days of the long track event. Alexa Scott, 17, of Manitoba, fresh off an appearance at the 2019 ISU World Junior Skating Championships, arrived in Red Deer eyeing down a golden showing. She did just that, capturing gold in the 3000m Tuesday, then notched another two gold on the final day Wednesday. She won the female 1000m race in the morning, more than a full second ahead of McDougall.
“I was racing the next fastest girl, Brooklyn McDougall, so I just tried to keep myself level headed. I knew I wasn’t as fresh as her,” Scott said.
“It went better than expected, the lap was fast and I didn’t die too hard in the end, it turned out well for me.”
She capped the special week off with another gold in the mass start, a 10-lap race with all the competitors on the track at once. Scott figures she’s never won a mass start race before, preferring races with a little less strategy. Needless to say, her gold medal to cap the week was special for that reason and the fact that she was still jet-lagged after only arriving in Alberta on Monday from Italy.
“My strategy was to do as little work as possible and sprint at the end and it turned out for me,” she said with a chuckle.
” Other girls wanted to do the work, so I just slid on in there. I was kind of forgotten about.”
Véronique Déry won bronze in the 1000m race.
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