William Dandjinou: Canada’s rising short track speed skating star looks to take the world by storm

William Dandjinou doesn’t simply glide across the ice. He flies.

The 23-year-old from Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada has made a name for himself in short track speed skating, imitating an eagle taking flight after every victory - an occurrence becoming more, and more common ahead of the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.

"I want to be known as a charismatic skater,” he told the CBC, ahead of the first 2024 ISU Short Track World Tour event in Montreal, Canada. “I want people to see my personality through my skating."

Dandjinou certainly gave the Canadian faithful plenty to look at, taking to the ice in a tour de force that saw him claim not one, not two, nor even three, but four individual event victories over two weekends of racing at the Maurice Richard Arena.

His skating propelled him into the conversation for the crystal globe, and left many wondering if he could be the next great Canadian short track speed skater, following in the footsteps of Marc Gagnon and Charles Hamelin.

From talented junior to dominant senior

Like many of his fellow Canadians, Dandjinou learned to skate early in his life. It was during the Olympic Winter Games Turin 2006 that a spark grew inside the then four-year-old, as he watched double Olympic champion Shani Davis claim his first gold medal at the Olympic Games.

Inspired by what he saw on television, Dandjinou joined a local skating club around the time he was six years old, beginning the slow, but gradual, process of progressing through the junior ranks. By the time he was 12 years old, he had begun training at a regional training centre in Laval, Quebec, Canada.

His first major breakthrough at the junior level occurred during the 2019 Canada Games, when he claimed three gold medals and two silver medals as a 17-year-old. He made the jump to senior competition soon after, finishing 28th in the 500m and 1000m events during his world cup debut in November 2019.

The talented junior was not immediately greeted by success at the senior level, as he struggled to advance out of the initial qualifying heats during his first few world cup starts. Nonetheless, Dandjinou made his first major breakthrough at the senior level during the 2022/2023 season, claiming a bronze medal in the 1000m at the 2022 ISU Four Continents Short Track Speed Skating Championships.

His results only improved from that day. He won his first world cup race in front of a home crowd in Montreal in October 2023, before claiming his first individual world championship title in the men’s 1000m at the 2024 ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Championships in March.

Plot twist: the remarkable breakthrough that almost didn’t happen

Rewind the story to the 2021/2022 season. The Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 were on the horizon, and Canada had five quota places to fill in men’s short track speed skating.

Dandjinou believed his dream of participating in the Olympic Games, which began all those years ago during Turin 2006, was finally within his grasp.

The selection events came and went, and the team was named: Dandjinou would be a reserve athlete for the Canadian team at Beijing 2022. Disappointed with the outcome, he considered quitting the sport altogether.

“It was very hard, because I had never experienced such a big disappointment,” he told The Canadian Press. “I almost stopped. I had two weeks where it was during the season and I was supposed to skate, and I just completely stopped skating.”

With the future of one of Canada’s most promising short track speed skaters hanging in the balance, Canadian skating legends Marc Gagnon and Charles Hamelin stepped in to encourage a distraught Dandjinou.

“It gave me motivation to just continue and try to figure out what I really like about skating, and not just the results, because the Olympics just happen once every four years,” Dandjinou said in the same interview with The Canadian Press.

Charles Hamelin added, “Sometimes an athlete needs an electroshock.”

Dandjinou returned to training with a new outlook on skating, and committed to being the best. The next season, he made his first major senior breakthrough at the 2022 ISU Four Continents Short Track Speed Skating Championships, and the rest was history.

A giant on the ice, and perhaps off the ice

While he still has a little ways to go before rising to the level of Gagnon and Hamelin in the Canadian skating zeitgeist, Dandjinou’s personality is already attracting fervent support from home fans.

His trademark flying eagle celebration, along with his preference to lead from the front have created an air of excitement around the now 23-year-old, who also stands out on the ice physically due to his above-average height for a short track speed skater.

"I'm not a typical skater,” he told the CBC. “I'm tall. My body shape. I have a skin colour that's not typical of a speed skater."

Still, he’s embraced everything that makes him unique in the sport, refining his style to compete against the world’s best short track speed skaters race after race. It certainly doesn’t hurt to have a studious mind either.

Whether it be reading a best-seller, analysing the chess board, or calculating the best strategic moves on the ice, Dandjinou keeps his brain busy, exercising his mental muscles to complement the physical training he undergoes to improve his performance on the ice.

"I want to succeed,” he told the CBC. “My goal is to dominate the sport. I feel like I'm coming into my golden time in the sport.”

While the unpredictable nature of short track speed skating isn’t lost on Dandjinou, he hopes to continue winning races, while focusing more eyeballs on the exhilarating sport that inspired him to dream big, pushed him mentally and physically, and brought him into his own on the ice.