‘I will be Olympic champion’: Canadian skate star Dandjinou vows to atone for 2nd disappointing result
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Chris Jones reports from Milan.
It has been a crushing 48 hours for William Dandjinou.
Canada’s towering 24-year-old short track star, a world champion and multiple-medal hopeful at these Winter Olympics, failed to reach the podium in his second straight final, finishing fifth in his signature race on Saturday, the 1,500 metres.
He finished fourth in the 1,000 metres on Thursday. Jens van ’t Wout of the Netherlands won gold in both, enjoying twin victories that Dandjinou was meant to savour.
The Canadian shed no tears after. He wasn’t inconsolable, or anything like it.
He was radiating anger, like a man intent on revenge.
“I only have one thing to say: One day I will be Olympic champion,” he said. “Mark my words.”
In an interview after his fifth-place finish in the men’s short track 1,500-metre race, Montreal’s William Dandjinou promised that one day he will become an Olympic champion.
And then he walked out into what will no doubt be a very long night.
It had started so well. He’d advanced easily through the quarter and semifinals, along with teammate Steven Dubois, the defending silver medallist.
He looked calm, measured, confident. In each of his first two races, Dandjinou took early leads, the first to put two hands behind his back and settle into his long, smooth strides. He looked like the favourite he was.
The crowded final, which included nine skaters because of penalty advancements, started much the same.
A rotation of skaters took the lead, and van ’t Wout set the early pace — knowing that Dandjinou is at his most dangerous in front — but the Canadian was always there, pressing, calculating.
Dubois fell early after trying to make a move from near the back of the pack. “The ice just broke,” he said after. “The conditions are hard. It’s not an excuse, but when you really have to take some risks, it makes a difference.”
In a wild men’s 1,500-metre short track speed skating final, Jens van ‘t Wout of Netherlands claimed his second gold of the Olympics, William Dandijinou and Steven Dubois of Canada miss podium.
With three laps to go, Dandjinou took his own, attempting a pass. He was blocked by Korea’s Dong Min Shin, lost his rhythm, and never managed to recover his momentum. That small bump, like his single costly slip in the 1,000-metre final on Thursday, stole four years of hard work and hope from him in an instant.
“I fell at the beginning” Dubois said. “It sucks, but I wasn’t that close. William was super close. It just sucks. It’s the sport. We live for disappointments and high emotions. That’s the way it works for us.”
Short track is an exercise in navigating chaos and despair. Inside the arena, an announcer calls it out loud like a horse race. The margins are fine, and luck factors in. The ice in Milan is shared with the figure skaters, which means it’s softer than speed skaters might like. Every competitor wears Kevlar. Every competitor has weapons laced to his feet.
It takes everything to win. It takes next to nothing to lose.
Adding to the pressure is a sense, deepening like dread, that Canada has underperformed at Milano Cortina. At the end of Day 8, Norway has 10 golds. Australia has three. Brazil and Kazakhstan each have one.
William Dandjinou might have had two on his own. Instead, Canada, so far, has none.
“It’s a bad week for sure,” Dubois said. “It’s the Olympics, so we knew everyone was going to be at the top of their game. It’s just super hard. Everyone wants to be on the podium.”
Dandjinou has climbed one, with the silver medal-winning mixed relay team, when he dreamed of standing on three.
He still has two chances left: the 500 metres, and the men’s 5,000-metre relay.
Dubois remains optimistic about both. He gave his friend a whisper of consolation after their shared lost final, but he said that otherwise, he’ll leave him alone to reset, to try to find his own way from regret to resolution in a hurry.
“I know William,” Dubois said. “He’ll be mad or disappointed for a couple of hours. He’ll sleep on it or go for a walk. He’ll be fine tomorrow.”
Tomorrow can’t come soon enough.
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