Heo Wins First World Tour Gold in Dordrecht, Stoddard Is Second For Crystal Globe

Andrew Heo won his first ISU Short Track World Tour Gold medal while Corinne Stoddard reached the podium four times as the four-stop competition wrapped up over the weekend in Dordrecht, Netherlands.

Stoddard, who won two individual Silver medals for the first time in her career while also helping two U.S. relay teams reach the podium, finished the World Tour season with eight individual medals and a second-place finish to Canada’s Courtney Sarault in the chase for the Crystal Globe points championship.

Stoddard scored 830 points in the Crystal Globe standings, trailing Sarault by 150. She also finished the World Tour in third place in the 500m and 1000m points standings, and fourth in 1500m.

Heo’s breakthrough came down to a race to the finish with Canada’s Steven Dubois in the Men’s 500. Heo ultimately won with a time of 42.012 seconds when Dubois was penalized for contact with Italy’s Pietro Sighel.

“It’s my first medal, and for it to be Gold is amazing, and it’s good momentum going into the Games,” Heo said. “They’re stepping stones — lots of little wins, and this is a big win.”

Heo began the race at the back of a six-man pack but looped inside to get to the front. His skates were just thousandths of a second behind Dubois at the finish line.

“Starting from sixth, I just tried to get in a good position because I knew they were going to fight,” Heo said. “I was trying to take advantage, and I was able to execute.”

It was the first individual medal for a U.S. men’s skater this season.

A renewed mental approach has helped Heo. It paid off during the final two weekends of the World Tour as Heo reached a B Final last week in Gdansk, Poland, then won his first A Final of the season in Dordrecht.

“I’ve been trying to find a love for the sport, to find the joy in it,” Heo said. “It had felt like a chore. For the past years, I’ve found the love for the journey, not the results. I like seeing all the hard work I’ve put in showing up in the results.”

Stoddard continued her strong season by finishing second in the 500m and 1000m with times of 42.999 seconds and 1:27.752, respectively. She also made the A Final in the 1500m, but a collision with two other skaters when they went three wide left her in fifth place.

Stoddard, who made her Olympic debut in 2022, trailed only Sarault in the Women’s 500m and 1000m, setting up potential battles just two months from now at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.

“I knew I had to do something crazy this weekend and that didn’t happen, but Courtney has been so strong and dominant this World Tour season and she definitely deserves it,” Stoddard said. “Hopefully I will finally get my Gold at the Olympics.”

Stoddard and Heo joined teammates Kristen Santos-Griswold and Brandon Kim to win a Silver medal in the 2000m Mixed Relay, finishing just over a half-second behind the Netherlands with a time of 2:37.947.

Stoddard captured a fourth medal, joining Santos-Griswold, Julie Letai and Eunice Lee for a third-place finish in the Women’s 3000m Relay. The Bronze medal comes after the Americans won a Silver medal in Gdansk.

Santos-Griswold, last season’s Crystal Cup winner, also won the B Final in the Women’s 1000m. She earned two individual medals and three team medals in World Tour competition as she recovered from a back injury and works toward a second consecutive Olympic Games.

Clayton DeClemente and Kim scored third-place finishes in a pair of B Finals, DeClemente in the Men’s 1500m and Kim in the Men’s 500m.

The Short Track competition at the Olympic Winter Games is set for Feb. 10-20 at the Milano Ice Skating Arena in Italy. Montreal, Quebec, will host the ISU Short Track World Championships on March 13-15.

Paul D. Bowker has been writing about Olympic and Paralympic sports since 1996, when he was an assistant bureau chief in Atlanta. He is a freelance contributor to USSpeedskating.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.