CBC Lite Sections Sports • Olympic Games • Winter Sports • Speed Skating Short track season is here, and Canada is short its best skater THE BUZZERJesse Campigotto | CBC Sports | Posted: October 22, 2026 8:37 PM | Last Updated: October 22 World Tour champ Will Dandjinou taking a timeout after tough Olympics Image | Will Dandjinou Caption: Canadian star Will Dandjinou is sitting out the first two World Tour stops in Vancouver and Montreal as he regroups from disappointing performances at the Olympics and world championships last season. (Gabriel Bouys/AFP via Getty Images) (BUTTON) Load image Open image in new tab The international short track speed skating season launches this week with the World Tour opener in Vancouver, followed by a meet in Montreal next week. The seven-stop tour also includes visits to South Korea, China, Poland and the Netherlands, all leading up to the world championships in Seoul in March. Canada is a fitting place to start the tour because it's become arguably the No. 1 short track country on the planet. Last season, the Canadian team (nicknamed the Ice Maples) racked up a world-leading 31 total medals and 15 gold across the four World Tour stops to capture its second consecutive team Crystal Globe trophy — easily outpointing second-place South Korea, which earned 21 medals and nine gold. Canada's Will Dandjinou repeated as the individual men's overall champion, while Courtney Sarault claimed her first women's overall crown. However, the two biggest events of the season did not really go Canada's way. At the Winter Olympics in Italy, Canada's short track skaters earned five of the country's 21 medals, matching the long track speed skaters and freestyle skiers for the biggest share. Sarault topped all Canadian athletes with four medals (two silver, two bronze) while longtime star Steven Dubois won gold in the men's 500 metres along with a mixed relay silver and was named one of Canada's flag-bearers for the closing ceremony. Olympic haul should've been bigger But the haul should have been bigger as Dandjinou, expected to win as many as five medals and multiple gold, left Milan with just a silver in the mixed relay. As a result, Canada finished third in the short track standings behind the Netherlands and South Korea. The world championships in Montreal a few weeks later offered Dandjinou and the Canadian team a golden opportunity to get back on top with the support of sold-out crowds in one of short track's global hotbeds. But the defending 1,500m (and former 1,000m) champ once again missed the podium in all three of his individual races while Sarault also failed to win a solo medal. On the bright side, Dandjinou helped Canada repeat as men's relay champs and, along with Sarault, contributed to a silver in the mixed relay while Dubois (in on both relay medals) won his second straight 500m world title to go with the Olympic gold. But Canada once again trailed the Koreans and the Dutch after dominating the 2025 world championships in Beijing with six gold and 10 total medals — including three gold and a silver for Dandjinou. Understandably reeling from his crushing experiences at the Olympics and the world championships in his hometown, the 25-year-old Dandjinou made an interesting move. Looking for a change of pace, he decided to skip the first two World Tour stops in Vancouver and Montreal and instead try his hand at long track skating, competing in the Canadian championships in Quebec City last weekend. He placed ninth in the 1,500m and ended up passing on the short-track-like mass start. Dandjinou plans to re-join the short-track World Tour next month in South Korea and will presumably continue through the world championships. He told CBC Sports' Devin Heroux that while he may continue to dabble in long track, he "definitely" wants to compete in short track at the 2030 Olympics in the French Alps. Meanwhile, Canada has named 12 skaters to compete in Vancouver and Montreal. Along with Dubois and Sarault, the team includes Félix Roussel, Florence Brunelle and Danaé Blais, who each earned relay medals at the Olympics and the world championships last season. Roussel and Brunelle also won one medal apiece on the World Tour. Canadian star Kim Boutin retired after the world championships, finishing her career with six Olympic medals and three world titles, including the individual 500m in 2024. How to watch Each World Tour stop begins with qualifying on Friday, followed by the medal races on Saturday and Sunday. There are three individual distances — 500m, 1,000m and 1,500m — plus men's, women's and mixed relays. You can catch every medal race on the World Tour and at the world championships live on the free CBC Gem streaming service and the CBC Sports website. Coverage of the tour opener at Vancouver's Pacific Coliseum begins this Saturday from 7-11 p.m. ET and continues Sunday at the same time. The new CBC Sports Primetime show on the CBC TV network will also feature action from the Vancouver event on Saturday from 9-11 p.m. ET, following coverage of the Grand Prix of Figure Skating opener in France. More Stories Like This The related links below are generated automatically based on the story you’ve just read. Loading... CBC Lite is a low-bandwidth website. To see what's new, check out our release notes. For high quality images, media, comments, and other additional features visit the full version of this story. 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