Recently crowned Canadian short track speed skating champions William Dandjinou and Florence Brunelle will be part of the 10-athlete team that will compete in the new ISU World Tour, which will replace the World Cup starting October 25 in Montreal.

On the men’s side, Steven Dubois, Jordan Pierre-Gilles, Félix Roussel and Philippe Daudelin will also be there. Danaé Blais, Kim Boutin, Rikki Doak and Qi Miao have been selected on the women’s side.

Qi, 19, will be competing on the main circuit for the first time in her career after winning the Canadian junior championship last November. Daudelin will begin the season with the national team after competing in the last World Cups last winter.

The rest of the men’s team needs no introduction. Dubois, Dandjinou, Roussel and Pierre-Gilles finished second, third, fifth and seventh respectively in the race for the crystal globe last season.

Like last year, Dandjinou was Canadian champion at the start of the season. He continued his momentum with six individual World Cup medals, including three victories in the 1500m, then won the world title in the 1000m.
A similar season would already represent a great accomplishment, but the 23-year-old Montrealer wants more.

“I want more. Yeah. Not because copying and pasting would be bad, but because there is a way to do it. The Olympic year is coming. There are learnings and situations that I want to put myself in before the Games to be as ready as possible. And it has to be done this year.”

After missing the start of last season to focus on a training camp, Boutin will be back in the full-time lineup. She finished the season strong on March 16, being crowned champion for the first time in her career. It was in the 500m.

She now looks ahead to the 2026 Olympics, for which she hopes to qualify with an emphasis on both performance and mental health.

Until then, on the world circuit, she wants to be the “Messi” of her team. That is to say, “not running after every ball, but running when it matters.”

“We really choose our moments so that I am at my best at the right time, like last year. For me, it’s more about choosing when I want to be at 100% and exploiting that form, at that moment. I see it as a ball of energy that I keep all year long and when I really want to perform, I go for it 100%.”

A new globe

While the names will remain essentially the same, the format of the competition will change significantly. For example, there will be only one race per distance, namely 500, 1000 and 1500 metres, and athletes will no longer be limited to two races. Each country will be able to send three skaters per distance.

Recently named head coach of the national team, Marc Gagnon could therefore have a lot of headaches when he and his team have to establish which skaters will participate in each of the races.

“It’s a lot of challenges for a Canadian team coach with the talent we have,” Gagnon said. “We can only send three skaters per distance, which means we can’t give everyone as much experience.”

The men’s 5000m relay, the women’s 3000m relay and the mixed 2000m relay have also been retained. The biggest new feature will undoubtedly be the creation of a team crystal globe, which will include all points from the individual races and relays.

The Canadiens are already coveting this new trophy. High performance director Marc Schryburt has also said that his team had done the math and that the Maple Leaf would have obtained it over the last two or three seasons.

The fight should be tight with South Korea, dominant for years in short track.

It’s unclear at this point whether the new team championship will change anything in terms of strategy, even though several Canadian skaters often compete on the ice.

Pierre-Gilles is, however, categorical: he will not change his approach.

“No,” he said confidently. “I don’t think there’s going to be a big difference. We’re used to training together. I think the internal competition is what allows us to perform better internationally.”

“The fact that there is a crystal globe for each team gives us the desire to prove that we are capable of winning it and it also pushes us to push our limits in the relays, including the mixed relay, an event in which we have not performed very well to date.”