The Loongs road to Milan starts here

"Nothing is given to you in short-track, so I have to earn everything," said Dandjinou, who collected a whopping eight gold medals from six World Tour events to claim the first season top-performer trophy for Canadian men last month.

"To me, the world championships provide another opportunity to improve myself to the best of my ability. So, I come into them with a clean slate and desire to win.

"But, everyone's ready, so I can anticipate some good races. I think, besides the Olympic Games, this is the biggest competition."

Led by the 23-year-old Dandjinou, the defending 1,000m world champion, Canada bagged 37 medals, including 21 gold, on the topflight ISU tour, winning the inaugural team Crystal Globe, while signing off the tour season with its skaters ranked top-three overall in five of the six individual distances and all three relays.

Women's reigning 1,000m world champion Santos-Griswold has also opted to start from scratch on her return to the Beijing 2022 venue, where she narrowly missed out on the Olympic podium.