Canada's (very tall) short track star could own the world championships
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What a week to be a speed skating fan!
The world single-distances championships for long track skaters began today in Norway, where the Canadian trio of Brooklyn McDougall, Béatrice Lamarche and Ivanie Blondin took silver in the women's team sprint.
Canada finished sixth in the men's team sprint. At last year's world championships in Calgary, Canada won gold in both events en route to capturing a national-record 10 medals.
Blondin also placed eighth in the women's 3,000 metres today, right behind Canadians Valerie Maltais and Isabelle Weidemann, who were sixth and seventh. Canada's Ted-Jan Bloemen and Graeme Fish were seventh and 13th, respectively, in the men's 5,000m.
Meanwhile, the best short track skaters are in Beijing for their world championships, which start Friday with qualifying rounds for the medal races on Saturday and Sunday. Canadians will be in contention for plenty of hardware after racking up a total of 37 medals across the six World Tour stops this season, including 21 gold, to give Canada a comfortable victory over the Netherlands and Italy for the team championship.
WATCH | Canada claims women's team sprint silver:
Canadian women capture team sprint silver at speed skating worlds
56 minutes ago
Duration 3:08
The top Canadian to watch is Will Dandjinou, who's poised to be a big star at next year's Winter Olympics in Italy after missing the cut for the 2022 Games. Unusually tall for a short-tracker, the 23-year-old from Sherbrooke, Que., stands 6-foot-3 without skates, stretching far beyond the 5-foot-9 frame he figures is ideal for his sport. "There's no blueprint for us tall guys," Dandjinou said in a recent interview.
But he's clearly made his relative lankiness work for him. Dandjinou won gold in the 1,000m at last year's world championships, and this season he's been the most dominant short-tracker on the planet, winning a global-high eight individual races on the World Tour to capture his first men's overall championship along with the 1,000m and 1,500m titles. Dandjinou also helped Canada to the men's relay title and finished second in the 500m to his teammate Steven Dubois, giving Canada a clean sweep of the five men's World Tour crystal globes. Here's more on Dandjinou's rise from CBC Sports' Devin Heroux.
Dubois is another guy to watch this week in Beijing. He captured a complete set of Olympic medals — gold in the relay, silver in the 1,500 and bronze in the 1,000 — on this same ice surface at the 2022 Winter Games. The 27-year-old has yet to win a world title, but he earned a pair of individual medals at the 2023 worlds in the short-track hotbed of Seoul before missing the podium last year in the Netherlands.
On the women's side, Canada will look to upgrade its relay bronze from last year's worlds after tying Italy for top spot in the World Tour standings. The top Canadians in the women's overall chase were Danae Blais and Florence Brunelle, who placed seventh and eighth. Blais finished third in the 1,000m standings while Brunelle was third in the 500m.
Four-time Olympic individual medallist Kim Boutin, who won her first world title last year in the 500m, finished 13th in the overall chase this season. But she did help Canada place second in the mixed relay and should have a shot at the podium in that event this weekend.
The full list of Canadians at the short track worlds:
Men
William Dandjinou: 500m, 1,000m, 1,500m
Steven Dubois: 500m, 1,000m
Maxime Laoun: 1,500m
Jordan Pierre-Gilles: 500m
Félix Roussel: 1,000m, 1500m
Women
Danaé Blais: 1,000m, 1,500m
Kim Boutin: 500m
Florence Brunelle: 500m, 1,000m, 1,500m
Rikki Doak: 500m
Courtney Sarault: 1,000m, 1,500m
Each Canadian skater is also eligible to compete in relays.
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