William Dandjinou of the Canadian Ice Maples stunned the Short Track world this season with the strength and consistency of his performances, culminating in his impressive triumph in the race for the prestigious ISU Crystal Globe.

William Dandjinou at the ISU Short Track World Tour 2025 in Milan ©ISU

While he had shown his huge potential in the sport with his wins last season – most notably the 1000m World Championships title – his ascent to the next level has been remarkable, even to the man himself.

“What was I expecting coming into the season? Not that much, honestly,” he says. “It’s always hard to know what the international level is going to be, no matter how prepared we are. I wouldn’t have predicted that I would win the Crystal Globe at all. I just tried to do my best every time. The thing that has gone right is that we have just got such a great team. It always goes back to this, for me. Great teammates, a great environment in which we can perform and show the best versions of ourselves, through a season as long as ours. It makes such a big difference.”

“We worked on removing ego, and those things have to be very conscious especially when you have a team with so many good individuals. The experiences we’ve been through in the past have made us stronger. We are never immune from ego so it’s good to have that in the conversation.”

William Dandjinou at the ISU Short Track World Tour 2025 in Milan ©ISU

Dandjinou’s coach, Marc Gagnon, claims that increased levels of belief are the key difference between his performances this year and over previous seasons. “I do agree, but I think confidence is a broad term,” says Dandjinou. “There is a thin line between confidence and overconfidence, and there’s a thin line between confident and being aware of what you are doing. For me, it is a mix of that. I gained that confidence to think, ‘I am capable of doing this’. But you can be confident and just do something that is not appropriate, like the yellow cards I got in Tilburg. You need to put things in context – work out what you’re doing and what the right move to do is. That is something you can work on daily.”

William Dandjinou at the ISU Short Track World Championships 2025 in Beijing ©ISU

A particularly successful summer of training put Dandjinou in the right physical shape to sustain a season-long challenge, too. “We destroyed ourselves in summer training, but we were intelligent about it,” he said. “We are really conscious about hard effort and going deep, but also about being able to come back from that and being able to give another good effort. We are really professional about it.”

An Olympic season lies ahead, but Dandjinou isn’t thinking too far ahead. “Being in Milan for the World Tour event was amazing,” he said. “We are going to work hard to be there next year, that is the objective, for sure. We will train as hard as possible, then work hard for selection for the international team, then for those first events of the season. We all want spots on the team, but once it is all confirmed we will all be supportive of each other. It’s going to be a long process, but I can’t wait. It’s a blessing we get to go through this adventure together.”