History: World short track championships in Montréal

The International Skating Union recently attributed the 2022 World short track championships to Montréal. Here is a look back at the past editions presented in Montreal.

By Jackob Savard

Photo: Tony Chung (shorttrackhd)

It will be the fifth time that Montreal will welcome the short track speed skating world championships and the fourth time at the end of an Olympic season. Montreal held these championships for the first time in 1987 and were also in charge of the 2002, 2014 and 2018 editions.

1987 - Canadian and Japanese performances

Canadian Michel Daignault finished atop of the podium of the 1987 World championships tied with Japanese skater Toshinobu Kawai. Dutch skater Charles Veldhoven finished third overall. Japanese Eiko Shishii was the winner in the ladies’ competition finishing ahead of Canadian star Nathalie Lambert. Eiko Shishii's teammate Mariko Kinoshita finished third.

2002 - A sixth consecutive title for Yang Yang (A)

In 2002, Chinese skater Yang Yang (A) won her sixth consecutive overall world champion title. She still holds the record for most World championships wins in career for a woman. Korean Ko Gi-hyun and Bulgarian Evgenia Radanova completed the ladies’ podium. The men’s competition was won by Korean Kim Dong-sung. Ahn Hyun-soo, also from Korea, finished second and Italian Fabio Carto took third.

2014 - Ahn Hyun-soo’s revival

The 2014 edition of these championships was won by Russian Viktor Ahn, who had already won five titles from 2003 to 2007 under the name of Ahn Hyun-soo while representing Korea. American J.R. Celski who skated an impressive 3000m and Canadian Charles Hamelin who won the 1500m finished second and third of the men’s ranking. In the ladies’ competition, Shim Suk-hee and Park Seung-hi took the first two positions finishing ahead of Canada's Valérie Maltais. One of the most spectacular relay races in a World Championships was raced at the 2014 World Championships when the Netherlands claimed a surprising victory thanks to a crazy last lap from Sjinkie Knegt. You can relive moments of this historic race HERE.

2018 - Charles Hamelin makes history

The most recent World Championships held in Montréal were one for the history books as Canada's Charles Hamelin won his first overall world champion title in career at the age of 33. Hungarian Liu Shaolin Sandor took the second position while Korean Hwang Dae-heon took third with his explosive 500m victory. In the ladies' portion of the competition, Korean Choi Min-jeong won the third World champion title of her young career in front of her teammate Shim Suk-hee and Chinese Li Jinyu. These Championships were also Marianne St-Gelais’s last international competition.

It would be hard to predict which athletes will end the 2022 Worlds at the top but we can already confirm that it will be an action packed weekend with the best speed skaters still pumped up following the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

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When a teammate makes the difference

By Jackob Savard

Photos: Schaats Foto’s & Martin Holtom

The Olympic games always create great stories here’s one of our favorite.

A tough start

Suzanne Schulting’s first Olympic games didn’t start the way she would’ve liked. She suffered a fall in her 500m qualification. Adding to that, the Dutch relay team didn’t qualify for the A final on the first day of racing.

The 20 years old skater, who is often seen as the incarnation of joy, shared with a reporter from De Telegraaf that she had difficulties handling the hectic ambiance of the Olympics and that she was exhausted after her first few days spent in Pyeongchang. Schulting bursted into tears on friday the 16th during a training session.

Jorien ter Mors who had won the 1000m in long track two days prior, came in support of her young teammate by cheering her up and giving her advices. "We have to help and support each other, this is her first Olympics." said ter Mors about the situation. Other than being Suzanne’s friend and teammate, Jorien ter Mors also played the role of a mentor for her through these tough times.

A fairy tail’s ending

After a tough start , the second half of the Olympic games was at the complete opposite for Suzanne Schulting. She helped the Dutch team break the ladies’ 3000m relay world record in the B final and took profit of two disqualifications in the A final to win the bronze medal. (read our text about this controversial relay HERE)

Two days after winning the bronze medal with her team, Suzanne raced two perfect 1000m and did the race of her life in the A final to win the distance. Schulting is the first ever Dutch lady to be crowned olympic champion in the history of the sport. Suzanne finally left Pyeongchang with a bronze medal and a gold medal. Their is a little part of Jorien ter Mors in Suzanne’s success and this story shows the importance of having the support of your teammates.

If you already miss the Games you can visit our Pyeongchang olympics page with all our articles related to the Olympics by clicking HERE.

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What is the current state of speed skating in the U.S.A.?

By Carl Savard

Photos by Oscar van den Bosch, Thomas Wendt and Danny Kim

1976, Champaign, Illinois. The  United States are holding the first ever Short track speed skating world championships. At the end of the competition, two americans, Allan Ratray and Celeste Chlapaty, win the overall ranking at home becoming the historical firsts world champions of the discipline. For the first four years on the men’s side and three years on the women’s side, Americans were present on the podiums of the World championships. Around the same period, their compatriot Eric Heiden won the Allround world championships in long track three years in a row and won 5 gold medals at the olympics in Lake Placid in 1980. His sister Beth was also crowned world allround champion in 1979.


In the 80’s Bonnie Blair started  building her legend. First in short track, where she would stand on the World championships' podium three years in a row winning the title in 1986. She then continued on the 400m oval in the 90’s, concentrating on sprint distances and winning the sprint world champion title three times while stepping on the podium nine times over a ten-year period. By the end of the 90’s, the world of inline speed skating was ruled by one man: Chad Hedrick. The American is known for being the father of the double push, a technique that every competitive speed skaters on wheels still use today. A technique that also brought him 50 world champion titles.  Hedrick then jumped on the ice and from 2004 to 2006, him and his American teammate Shani Davis ruled the Allround world championships with Hedrick winning once and finishing second once and Davis finishing behind Hedrick in 2004 before winning the title in 2005 and 2006.

You can’t talk about speed skating in the first decade of 2000 without talking about short track’s legend Apolo Anton Ohno. In fact, you can’t talk about short track speed skating’s history without talking about Ohno. The Asian domination had already started at the time and Ohno was one of the only skaters able to battle with them. Same thing for Katherine Reutter in the next decade on the women’s side. She wasn’t able to win an overall world champion title like Ohno did in 2008, but she was an inspiration for Western skaters such as Elise Christie.  

While in long track, Shani Davis went on to have great results at the Sprint world championships winning the title in 2009 and getting on the podium two other times, on wheels Joey Mantia was the guy to beat in 2009 and 2010. He is now competing on the ice in long track.

But what about now? In long track speed skating, Heather Bergsma and Brittany Bowe have been amazing in the last 5 years. On the men’s side though, we’re still looking for the next Shani Davis. In short track, all eyes are on Maame Biney and her sparkling personality is a plus to promote the sport, but it’s too soon to say if her amazing potential will turn into major results. J.R. Celski was a force to reckon with in short track for a few years, but his star started fading in the last few seasons. With a medal at the Pyeongchang Olympic games, John-Henry Krueger looked to be the next one in short track but after a disagreement with US Speed Skating, the young man moved to Hungary and won’t skate for the United States anymore. As for the future on wheels, while the inline speed skating community was excited by the fact that the Youth olympic games would present an inline competition, the United States Olympic Committee has decided not to take part in it, although one of their own will always be seen as a legend and a builder of this sport.

You can’t really talk about speed skating in all its forms without talking about Eric Heiden, Apolo Ohno, Bonnie Blair and Chad Hedrick, but what’s next for speed skating in the U.S.A.? Is it just at the bottom of a cycle or is it sinking? As a nation who has always been proud of its successes in sport, with a population way over most countries taking part in speed skating events and being the nation of many historical figures in the sport, what’s missing to get back to its old self and be more of a leader? Who has the answer?

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