ISU

Lara van Ruijven didn’t think she was going to have a great 2018/19 Short Track season. In fact, she feared it might be a disaster.

Everyone knows about Korean, Canadian, Russian and Dutch Short Track racers but the Short Track Speed Skating is are a truly international affair – and some teams are one-athlete organizations from countries without any winter sport tradition.

Belgium and the Netherlands have always been huge sporting rivals: Benelux neighbors who particularly don’t like each other on the football field.

Charles Hamelin almost retired last summer, but when it came to the moment of truth, the elder statesman of Canadian Short Track – now 34 and entering his 16th World Championships – just couldn’t do it.

Bulgaria’s Short Track Speed Skaters do not have to look far as they complete their preparations for the coming ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Championships in the country’s capital, Sofia. Not only is one of the nation’s most celebrated Olympians an all-time Short Track legend, she is also the national team coach.

The refereeing system for Short Track Speed Skating has had an overhaul this season, producing a clearer set of guidelines, introducing a new video reviewing process and announcing the awarded penalty via the announcer and new TV graphics.

Young, charismatic and mind-blowingly fast, Hungarian brothers Shaolin Sandor Liu and Shaoang Liu are loving life right now. And, frankly, the Short Track Speed Skating world loves them right back.

Pork belly, deep sleep and the small matter of nine hours’ training per day – these are the ingredients which have turned 20-year-old Korean Kim Gun Woo into one of the most exciting Short Track Speed Skating talents.

Get used to hearing the name Alyson Charles. The 20-year-old has enjoyed a stunning rookie season on the ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating circuit and is at the vanguard of a youthful charge to shake up the sport’s established order.

One year on from having the world’s attention thrust upon her at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games, Maame Biney (USA) is mightily relieved to just be one of a number of highly talented young Short Track Speed Skaters attempting to break into the upper echelons of the sport.

The Germans are coming. That is the message coming quietly but confidently from team leader Anna Seidel and new national coach Stuart Horsepool as the penultimate ISU Short Track Speed Skating World Cup of the 2018/19 season got underway in Dresden, Germany.

Mother-of-two and sprint sensation Martina Valcepina will be the beating heart of an Italian team primed to exploit home advantage at this weekend’s ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating as the sport’s elite return to Torino for the first time in two years.

Short Track Speed Skating star Vladislav Bykanov is driven by a poignant ambition every time he steps on to the ice. 

With two World Cup stops to go, Suzanne Schulting (NED) tops the overall world ranking, unbeaten in the Ladies’ 1000m, and comes into the last leg of the season full of confidence after dominating the European Championships in front of her home fans.

For Sofia Prosvirnova (RUS) the 2019 ISU European Short Track Championships summed up all that makes her sport one of the most thrilling rides out there. Dominant displays were jumbled up with dramatic falls, crucial refereeing decisions and healthy slices of luck, all of which resulted in favorites winning, returning warriors surprising themselves and young guns coming to the fore.