Valérie Maltais is back on the board.
The Canadian skated to a surprising bronze medal in the women’s 1,500 metres on Friday at the Milano-Cortina Olympics for her third of the Games.
Maltais previously won gold in team pursuit and bronze in the 3,000m in Italy.
Canada now has 16 medals at these Olympics, with four gold, five silver and seven bronze.
Maltais, 35, posted a time of one minute 54.50 seconds to take the lead with multiple pairs still to go.
But only two competitors — Dutch gold medallist Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong (1:54.09) and silver medallist Ragne Wiklund of Norway (1:54.15) — were able to top the La Baie, Que., native.
Fellow Canadians Ivanie Blondin and Beatrice Lamarche placed eighth and 17th, respectively.
But it was Maltais who was the story at Milano Speed Skating Stadium, where she wasn’t among the favourites to reach the podium after placing 13th in the distance at last year’s world championships.
The converted short tracker didn’t even compete in the event when she made her long-track Olympic debut four years ago in Beijing. Her career-best finish at worlds is 10th.
Now, she has a third medal to add to her Milan collection and fifth for her career, also including team-pursuit gold in 2022 and a short-track silver in 2014.
Maltais has one more opportunity to add to that when she returns to the ice for the mass start on Saturday.