5 skaters to watch this season in short track

With the 2018/2019 season fast approaching, check out our list of international skaters to watch this season on the short track World Cup circuit.

By Jackob Savard
Photo: Tony Chung (@SHORTTRACKHD), Schaats Foto's, Martin Holtom, Bert van Lobenstein and Danny Kim

The goal of this article is to highlight skaters who could surprise this season. You won’t find names of well established skaters like Sjinkie Knegt, Wu Dajing, Hwang Daeheon or Choi Minjeong who will obviously perform well.

LI Jinyu - CHN

We had a chance to see Li Jinyu's potential at the end of last season. The seventeen-year -old skater from China took a silver medal on 1500m at the Pyeongchang Olympics. She also concluded her season with the bronze on 1000m and in the overall ranking of the 2018 World Championships  in Montréal. She could take her share of medals this season.


Sofia Prosvirnova - RUS

You probably already know Sofia Prosvirnova’s name since she has been battling on the international circuit for a couple of years. She is already a two-time olympian with her participations at the Sochi Olympics in 2014 and at the Pyeongchang Olympics in 2018. The European champion on 1000m in 2017, World Junior Championships medalist and World cup medalist from Russia looks like she could perform very well in the upcoming seasons. She's the close future of Russian speed skating.

Ren Ziwei - CHN

The twenty-one-year-old Chinese skater Ren Ziwei was one of the fastest on 500m last season. He finished the 2017/2018 season with a silver medal on 500m at the World Championships and a silver medal on the relay at the Olympics. The 2016 overall junior world champion is fastly making his way up the international circuit and he will be, according to our team, one of the most dangerous skater on 500m for the next few seasons. You should keep an eye on him in this olympic cycle leading to Beijing 2022 where he could fight at home.

Kazuki Yoshinaga - JPN

Japanese skater Kazuki Yoshniaga has been skating on the international circuit for a couple of seasons. His principal achievements are a third place in the overall ranking of the 2017 junior World Championship and his contribution to the impressive bronze medal of Japan in the relay at the 2018 World Championships. We believe he could improve again this season and be one of the skaters to watch. He already won a competition this season with great performances at the KPN cup #1 in the Netherlands last month.

Thomas Hong - USA

With John-Henry Krueger soon skating for Hungary, twenty-one-year-old Thomas Insuk Hong will have a bigger role to play in the American national team in short track. Hong has been on the World Cup circuit for a couple of years and has helped USA step on a couple of relay podiums. He was part of the team that broke the 5000m relay world record last season. Our crystal ball tells us he may start collecting individual medals this season. Keep an eye on him!

Which skaters are YOU most excited to see this season?

An article about 5 Canadian skaters to watch is under preparation and will be published soon.

Don't forget to follow our Facebook page, our Instagram account and our Twitter account for daily news and results about speed skating.