Canada dominates 2025 World Short Track Speed Skating Championships with ten-medal performance
Canada swept the gold medals in the men's events.
Canada dominated the 2025 World Short Track Speed Skating Championships this weekend, winning ten medals to cement themselves as the leading short track nation at the end of a very strong season. With under a year now until the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, the latest showing maintains several Canadians as podium favourites, in addition to more strong performances in the relays.
There were nine events on the schedule at this weekend’s event in Beijing, and Canada came with ten medals — six golds and four silvers. It is the country's best performance at worlds since winning ten medals in 1996, and the six gold medals were the most since 1994 when Canada won seven.
Six of those ten medals came on a super Sunday for the team, at the same arena that hosted the 2022 Olympic events where Canada won four medals.
Canadian athletes swept the gold medals in all of the men’s events — the 500 metre, 1000m, 1500m and 5000m relay. Steven Dubois won the first two, while breakout superstar William Dandjinou won his preferred 1500m and took the silver in the 1000. They teamed up with Maxime Laoun, Félix Roussel and Jordan Pierre-Gilles to win the relay, an event in which they are the reigning Olympic champions.
In the women’s events, Canadian skaters finished second place in the three individual races before teaming up to win gold in the 3000m relay. Rikki Doak finished second in the 500m event, and Courtney Sarault took silver in the 1000 and 1500 metre events. They were joined in the relay by Kim Boutin and Florence Brunelle to win that gold medal.
Canada’s outstanding season on both the men’s and women’s circuits can be best represented by their strong victory in the 2000m mixed relay, where the team again won gold. In that event Boutin and Brunelle combined with Dubois and Dandjinou to add another world title to their growing collections.
“This is all pretty crazy, there are really no other words,” Dubois said to Speed Skating Canada after the event on Sunday. “We were hoping for some good results, and we knew we had a shot in every distance, but for us to win literally everything we touched on the ice this weekend is surreal. We are the strongest team, and we showed it. It feels good to end the year on such a good note.”
The world championships capped a dominant season for the Canadians, who won the team crystal globe as the top group on the world tour this season.
Canada finished the season with 37 medals across six stops of the tour, nine more than the second-place Netherlands. Canada’s 21 gold medals were also eight more than the Dutch.
Canada swept the men’s season-long world tour leaderboards as well, with Dandjinou taking the crown in the 1000 and 1500 metre events and the overall individual standings. Dubois took the 500m title, and Canada were top of the men’s 5000m relay leaderboard as well The Canadian women tied with Italy for the overall 3000m relay title.
Dandjinou, who celebrates his wins by flapping his arms like an eagle, has exploded onto the scene over the past few years and is seen as the best skater in the world heading into the Winter Olympics.
“A world championship title is never guaranteed, so to be able to perform like this against such a strong field is amazing,” said Dandjinou. “We’re going to work even harder this summer to make sure it happens again and again.”
After a few months off between seasons, the final push toward the Olympics begins at the 2025 Canadian Short Track Championships from August 23 to 31 in Montreal.
Short track events at the Olympics will take place from February 10-20, 2026 at Forum di Milano, which hosted the final stop of the ISU Short Track World Tour this season.
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