Klassen started her sports career as an
ice hockey player at Gateway Community Club in Winnipeg and played for the Canadian national youth team. When she was not selected for the
1998 Winter Olympics, she switched to speed skating, where she soon proved to be a natural talent. Klassen missed the entire 2003–04 season due to a serious injury. She fell during training, collided with another skater, hit his skate, and as a result twelve
tendons in her right arm were cut.
Record success In 2006, she announced she would not carry the Canadian flag at the
Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, although she had not yet been asked. The flag was instead carried by women's ice hockey veteran
Danielle Goyette. Going into the
2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Klassen was considered one of the favourites, following her
allround title in 2003 and
two world distance titles in 2005. Klassen started out by winning a silver in the 1000 m, narrowly missing out on gold. Klassen then became Olympic champion in the 1500 m. She followed this with a silver in the women's team pursuit and bronze in the 3000 m and 5000 m. The following day, February 27, Klassen signed the most lucrative endorsement deal ever for a Canadian amateur athlete, with
Manitoba Telecom Services (MTS), estimated at $1 million. Klassen also signed an endorsement deal with McDonald's. On December 11, she was named as the winner of the
Lou Marsh Trophy as Canadian athlete of the year, beating out the likes of
Joe Thornton,
Justin Morneau,
Steve Nash and teammate
Clara Hughes.
Surgery and the 2010 Olympics In preparation for the
2010 Winter Olympics in
Vancouver, Klassen decided not to participate in the fall races for the
Speed Skating World Cup. She returned to competition in 2008 but decided to cut the skating season short in February 2008 after her sister was in a near-fatal accident. She also said that she would only focus on the World Single Distance Championships. Defending her all-around title and high World Cup classifications were not her main goal for the season. In July, Klassen had surgery to repair damage done to her knees over her skating career and in high school basketball. The surgeries would keep her from competing in the
2008–09 World Cup. Sometime later in 2009, her doctor discussed her knees, saying that: These things don't go away, they're not cured. It's not like a broken bone that once it's healed it's back to good strength and can take stress. It's not like that. It's never going to be perfectly normal. It's not possible to get that. He later added that the only way for her knees to stop degenerating would be for Klassen to give up speed skating. On January 5, 2010, the
Royal Canadian Mint announced that they were minting 22 million
Canadian quarters with an image of Klassen in a speed skating pose on it. Three million of the quarters were minted with a red
maple leaf on it. The mint issued the quarters as an honour to Klassen's six medals in the Olympics, and as part of their Olympic Moments quarter-coins series. Coming back from double knee-surgery and two years off from skating, Klassen's main goal at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver was simply to compete. She said that "My goal is just to qualify. To get there would be great." She failed to medal in 2010, placing 21st in the
1500 m, 14th in the
3000 m, and 12th in the
5000 m. Klassen was also named as an alternate in the team pursuit. While Klassen stated that she was unsure of whether she would continue speed skating after the Games, she believed that her knees would hold out and that the
2014 Sochi Olympics were a possibility. At the first meet of the World Cup season, Klassen got her first individual podium result since the
2007–08 season, finishing second in the 3000 m and following that with a fourth-place finish in the 1500 m the next day. Despite the pain and fatigue from injuries, Klassen became a member of the women's team pursuit team that first won gold at the
2011 World Championships and then came back at the
2012 Worlds to win a silver as repeat medallists. That
same season she had also helped to pull the women to the top of the World Cup title, winning three of four races that year together with
Brittany Schussler and
Christine Nesbitt. She retired in June 2015 after the tail end of her career was hampered by injuries. Klassen issued a retirement interview stating "It's been an incredible honour to represent Canada in speed skating for 15 years. Speed skating has been a blessing in my life. It has provided me with unbelievable experiences and has taught me many life lessons." ==Post-retirement from sports==