WINNIPEG (CBC) - Now that her sister is well on the road to recovering from a devastating car crash, Olympic speedskater Cindy Klassen says it's time to return to the rink.

Klassen stopped her training in Calgary in early February after a vehicle driven by her sister, Lisa, fell from the North Perimeter Bridge in Winnipeg, landing upside-down on the frozen Red River.

Lisa Klassen, who was pulled from her wrecked vehicle by passersby, suffered a broken tailbone, pelvis and vertebrae.

Cindy Klassen said Thursday that her sister is almost fully recovered, so it's time for her to get her own career back on track.

"I'm getting back into training. I actually have to head back to Calgary on Monday," said Klassen after receiving an award from the Concordia Foundation, a health-services related charity.

"It's been great living here with my family again, but it's time to get back," she said. "All my teammates are in Calgary, and they just finished a block of rest after the season. And we're all starting up again, and I'm anxious to see them again."

Klassen said her short-term goal is gearing up for the World Cup season that starts in November.

In the long term, she hopes to win a gold medal at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

Klassen became Canada's most decorated Olympian after winning five medals at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy. She was the first Canadian athlete to win five medals - a gold, two silver and two bronze - in a single Olympics and, with her bronze in the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, the first with six Olympic medals overall in her career.

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