{"id":475481,"date":"2026-02-15T00:35:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T00:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/475481\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T00:35:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T00:35:10","slug":"heartbreak-and-hope-for-team-canada-in-short-track-speed-skating-on-day-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/475481\/","title":{"rendered":"Heartbreak and hope for Team Canada in short track speed skating on Day 8"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tCOC Photo\/Leah Hennel<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFebruary 14, 2026\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Sharing<\/p>\n

Day 8 brought mixed results for Team Canada in short track speed skating, with momentum on the women\u2019s side and heartbreak for the men.<\/p>\n

Starting with the heartbreak.<\/p>\n

William Dandjinou<\/a>, one of the sport\u2019s bright young stars, came up just short in the men\u2019s 1500m final. <\/p>\n

He\u2019d looked strong earlier in the day, posting the fastest time in his semifinal heat. But in a crowded, nine-man final, the 24-year-old finished less than 0.3 seconds behind the bronze medal winner.<\/p>\n

Dandjinou, who won silver earlier in these Games in the mixed relay<\/a>, ultimately finished fifth in the 1500m. <\/p>\n

\u201cWilliam was clearly the favourite coming here, and he had set big goals for himself,\u201d coach Marc Gagnon<\/a> told reporters in French afterwards. \u201cHe needs time, but he also needs us to be there to coach him and tell him that he can take some time to cry it out, even though he won\u2019t admit it. He needs it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes, things go your way, sometimes they don\u2019t. Things clearly aren\u2019t going his way right now, but all those decisions that he made [on the track] are the reason why he has won so many races in the last two years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TeamTeam Canada\u2019s William Dandjinou competes in the Short Track Speed Skating Men\u2019s 1500m finals at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Italy on Saturday, February 14, 2026. Photo by Leah Hennel\/COC<\/p>\n

Fellow Canadian Steven Dubois<\/a>, who won silver in the men\u2019s 1500m at Beijing 2022<\/a>, finished sixth. F\u00e9lix Roussel<\/a>, who was part of the mixed relay team at Milano Cortina 2026, received a yellow card in the 1500m semifinal and did not advance.<\/p>\n

Now for the hope.<\/p>\n

The Canadian quartet of Kim Boutin<\/a>, Courtney Sarault<\/a>, Florence Brunelle<\/a> and Dana\u00e9 Blais<\/a> finished second in their semifinal heat to advance to Wednesday\u2019s A final.<\/p>\n

READ: Silver medal just the beginning for Canada\u2019s ambitious short track speed skating team<\/a><\/p>\n

Their time of 4:04.856 was second fastest overall in the semifinals, but just 0.122 seconds faster than the team from China. Had Canada finished third in their heat, they\u2019d have had no shot at the podium.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes us confident,\u201d Blais told reporters in French. \u201cWe were able to stay calm and focused. It\u2019s exactly what we had to do to get into the A final. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe can be very proud of that and it makes us confident that we can handle anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TeamTeam Canada\u2019s Florence Brunelle and Courtney Sarualt compete in the Short Track Women\u2019s 3000m Relay semi-finals at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Italy on Saturday, February 14, 2026. Photo by Leah Hennel\/COC<\/p>\n

Earlier in the day, in the women\u2019s 1000m heats, Sarault, Boutin, and Brunelle all advanced to Monday\u2019s quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

Sarault already has two medals at these Olympic Games, a silver with the mixed relay team and a bronze in the 500m<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Brunelle and Boutin also earned silver in the mixed team relay. For Boutin, that was a fifth Olympic medal over the course of three Winter Olympic Games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COC Photo\/Leah Hennel February 14, 2026 Day 8 brought mixed results for Team Canada in short track speed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,100777,193013,140273,189876,189879,193014,44,156320,100779,13543,100780],"class_list":{"0":"post-475481","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-courtney-sarault","11":"tag-danae-blais","12":"tag-felix-roussel","13":"tag-florence-brunelle","14":"tag-kim-boutin","15":"tag-marc-gagnon","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-short-track-speed-skating","18":"tag-steven-dubois","19":"tag-team-canada","20":"tag-william-dandjinou"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}