Three-times Olympic medallist Kim Boutin heads the provisional women’s national team, which features eight skaters.

Boutin won silver in the women’s 1000 metres at Pyeongchang 2018, as well as bronze in the 500m and 1500m events.

She will hope for further success at Beijing 2022 next year.

The women’s national team includes Courtney Sarault, Florence Brunelle, Alyson Charles, Danaé Blais, Camille De Serres-Rainville, Claudia Gagnon and Rikki Doak.

Steven Dubois, Pascal Dion, Jordan Pierre Gilles, Charles Hamelin, William Dandjinou, Nicolas Perreault, Maxime Laoun and Alphonse Ouimette have been included on the men’s national team.

Hamelin, a double Vancouver 2010 Olympic champion and Sochi 2014 gold medallist, will be among the veterans of the team.

The 37-year-old has won a medal at the past four Winter Olympics, having been part of Canada’s bronze medal winning 5000m men’s relay team in Pyeongchang.

Speed Skating Canada says the provisional national team is largely unchanged from last season, with Perreault the only addition to the squad.

Team nominations were made following the 2021 Canadian Short Track Championships, which were hosted in Montreal from August 21 to 29.

Nominations were based on the final adjusted rankings from the competition, while also taking into consideration the recommendations of national programme coaches and athlete evaluations for bye requests and discretionary nominations.

Speed Skating Canada say 12 members of the 16-strong national team will form part of a racing pool for special Olympic qualification competitions.

The members of the racing pool will represent Canada on the World Cup circuit.

The skaters will seek to secure places for Beijing 2022 at four World Cup events.

Boutin, Sarault, Brunelle, Charles, Blais and De Serres-Rainville are selected in the women’s racing pool, while Dubois, Dion, Pierre Gilles, Hamelin, Laoun and Dandjinou feature in the men’s pool.

World Cup events will take place in China’s capital Beijing and Nagoya in Japan in October.

Competition will continue at Debrecen in Hungary and Dordrecht in the Netherlands in November.

Speed Skating Canada say the national teams could change in coming weeks should an appeal be submitted and accepted.

NextGen teams have also been selected.

Ann-Sophie Bachand, Victoria Gareau, Wren Acorn, Anne-Clara Belley, Béatrice Delorme and Miao Qi are included in the women’s NextGen team.

The men’s squad includes Jérôme Courtemanche, Alexandre Migner, Félix Roussel, Samuel Green, Émilien Blackburn and Philippe Daudelin.