Short track rivals S. Korea, Canada share ice in training

William Dandjinou of Canada, left, and Hwang Dae-heon of South Korea, right, chat during their teams' joint short track speed skating training session ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics at Milano Ice Skating Arena in Milan, Tuesday. Yonhap

MILAN — The main short track speed skating rink for the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics saw the sport's two powerhouses share the ice for a training session on Tuesday, with 10 skaters from each team taking part ahead of what could be some memorable battles in northern Italy.

South Korea, the most successful country in Olympic short track history with 26 gold medals, had 10 skaters at work at Milano Ice Skating Arena in Milan. They were joined by 10 short trackers from Canada, which sits third on the all-time short track medal table with 10 gold medals, two behind China.

South Korea boasts three Olympic champions in Choi Min-jeong, Shim Suk-hee and Hwang Dae-heon, plus an 18-year-old phenom Rim Jong-un, who beat out former Olympians to win the notoriously difficult national team trials last year.

But Canada was the most dominant team in the 2025-2026 International Skating Union Short Track World Tour season, as it led all nations with 15 gold medals and 31 medals overall.

William Dandjinou reigned supreme in the men's competition, winning seven individual World Tour titles en route to capturing the Crystal Globe as the overall champion.

Courtney Sarault won the Crystal Globe on the women's side, on the strength of her five individual gold medals.

The South Koreans took the ice first on Wednesday. While they gathered in center ice for some instructions from their coaches after a brief warmup, the Canadians came out to begin skating.

A few minutes later, the two countries ran a joint relay drill, each side sending out two skaters at a time and working on exchanges in a race-like setting.

This was followed by separate skates, with one team watching carefully while the other team went to work.

"I think we were able to see which skaters from Canada worked well off each other at which points in a relay," Rim said afterward. "As for our team, we did our best to try to get on the same page without showing too much of what we're trying to do."

There are few, if any, secrets between these rival nations, considering that they've been going at it throughout the season, whether in individual races or in relays. Sarault noted that since this was Canada's first training in Milan, the objective was to "get our legs under us."

"We don't have any crazy secret plans," she said. "But at the end of the day, we're going to all skate together and every decision's going to be different and every race is different. So you can pick up some things but you never really know in short track."