Olympic Oval Coaches

The Olympic Oval has seven coaches responsible for the Elite Athlete Pathway. 

 

Kevin Crocket, Mike Ireland, Cristina Lazarescu, Todd McClements and Phil Riopel coach long track speed skating. Elizabeth Ward and Maggie Qi coach short track speed skating. 

Kevin Crockett

Kevin Crockett

Bio

Hometown: Kitchener, ON
Personal: Married with two children
Languages: English
Discipline: Long Track

About: Kevin has been coaching with the Olympic Oval from 2004 - 2011 and from 2021 - present.

Career Highlights: Bronze medal 500m, 1998 Nagano Olympic Winter Games

Mike Ireland

Kevin Crockett

Bio

Hometown: Winnipeg, MB.
Personal: Married with two children
Languages: English and Japanese
Discipline: Long Track

About: 
Career Highlights: Gold medal, 2001 World Sprint Championships

C. Lazarescu

C. Lazarescu

Bio

Hometown: Miercurea-Ciuc, România
Personal: Married with two children
Languages: English, French, Romanian and Hungarian
Discipline: Long Track and Short Track

About: Cristina Lazarescu has been coaching with the Olympic Oval since 2015

Career Highlights

  • Coach for the Alberta Short Track Team at the 2019 Canada Winter Games 
  • Team AB short track: 1 Gold, 2 Silver and 2 Bronze at the CWG 2019

T. McClements

Todd McClements

Bio

Hometown: Saskatoon, SK.
Personal: Married
Languages: English
Discipline: Long Track

About: Todd McClements has been with the Oval since 2004 as a coach and worked with Speed Skating Canada from 2011 to 2022.

Career Highlights:

  • Coached both Junior world champions (Ben Donnelly in 2016 overall World Champ and World Champion in 1000m and 5000m) and Senior World Champions (Ted-Jan Bloemen 5000m and Graeme Fish in the 10,000m) in 2020.
  • Coached at the 2014 Sochi and 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.

Phil Riopel

Phil Riopel

Bio

Hometown:
Personal: Married with one child
Languages: English and French

About: 
Career Highlights:

Patrick Duffy

Patrick Duffy

Bio

Hometown: 
Personal: 
Languages: English and French

About: 
Career Highlights:

Elizabeth Ward

Elizabeth Ward

Bio

Hometown: Montréal, QC.
Personal: 
Languages: English and French

About: 
Career Highlights:

Xiuli Wang

Xiuli Wang

We have some of the most talented coaches in the speed skating world — we are very lucky to be able to utilize their expertise in coaching our high-performance athletes.

Jonathan Guilmette

Manager, High Performance Programs