Maltais, Valérie (LT)
International Seasons: 2008-2018 (ST), 2018-Present (LT)
Sponsors: Bio-k+ internationale, Promotion Saguenay, Oakley, Saputo
Valérie Maltais competed in figure skating when she started speed skating at age 6. A few years later, at the 2009 Short Track World Junior Championships, she won a bronze medal in the 500m and a silver medal in the Women's team relay. She got her first gold medal in an international competition in October 2012 when she finished first in the 1000m event at a World Cup in Montreal.
Following the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, where she took the 14th spot in the 1500m and was the alternate for the Canadian Women Team Relay, Valérie Maltais won her first Olympic medal in 2014 in Sochi when the Women Team Relay received the silver. In the 1000m, she took the 6th position while establishing a new Olympic record of 1:28.771 in the heats.
A few months later, at the 2014 Short Track World Championships, the athlete from La Baie, QC, won the bronze medal in the 1000m, a first individual medal of her career in this event. She also finished third in the overall standings while being part of the silver medalist women team relay.
Following her performances in the 2013-2014 season, she received Speed Skating Canada's Female Short Track Athlete of the Year Award, an honour she also got in 2012.
She’s still holds the Canadian record in the women's 1000m (1:27.895) and six others in Canadian age group events.
In her free time, Valérie Maltais likes to cook and participate in inline skating. She competed at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto in the roller speed skating competitions
Valérie Maltais finished her college diploma in dietetics at the Collège Maisonneuve in Montreal and would like to pursue the same studies at university.
