Santos-Griswold Goes Gold For The First Time This Season, And Does It Twice
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by Paul D. Bowker
Kristen Santos-Griswold won her first two Gold medals of the 2024-25 season while Corinne Stoddard added a Bronze medal in the final fall stop of the ISU Short Track World Tour.
After winning three individual Silver medals in three World Tour stops and finishing just off the podium Saturday in the Women’s 1000m, Santos-Griswold won a pair of Gold medals in less than two hours Sunday in Seoul, South Korea.
The 2023-24 Crystal Globe runner-up claimed wins in the Women’s 1500m and 500m, with Stoddard taking third in the 1500m.
“It means a lot. It’s been kind of a rough season for me so far with a lot of falls, and just not the best race strategies going, so I’m really happy I could pull it all together today,” Santos-Griswold said.
In a star-studded Women’s 1500m semifinal, Santos-Griswold held off defending world champion Kim Gilli of South Korea and Stoddard. Then, in the final, Santos-Griswold took the lead with three laps to go in the final and edged Belgium’s Hanne Desmet by .028 seconds for the win. Santos-Griswold finished with a time of 2:27.075.
“Figuring out how to maneuver in a race and the tactics behind it has been definitely a little bit of a learning curve for me, but hopefully now I am on the right path,” Santos-Griswold said.
The day before, she had finished fourth in the 1000m, missing a podium spot by .108 seconds in a race that was won by Kim.
Stoddard, who had risen to second place in the Crystal Globe standings last week in Beijing, finished third behind Santos-Griswold and Desmet in 2:27.290.
“I definitely need rest, my legs definitely don’t feel like they did last week,” said Stoddard, who won her first individual World Tour Gold medal in Beijing. “But I am also really happy for my teammate to get a Gold.”
After winning the 1500m, Santos-Griswold did the same in the 500m, capturing first place with a time of 43.362 seconds.
“I love the 500m because you don’t have to think about it,” Santos-Griswold said. “You just go out there and go.”
The two victories vaulted Santos-Griswold to first place in the Crystal Globe standings with 738 points, 10 points ahead of Xandra Velzeboer of Netherlands.
“Last year was obviously a really amazing year for me, and it was a little bit like I could get out in front and leave some space and take advantage of that, but this year everyone has been right there,” Santos-Griswold said. “That’s something that I have had to try wrap my head around quite a bit.”
Stoddard’s podium finish in the 1500m was her third at that distance, and sixth overall, in individual events this season.
Brandon Kim made it to an A Final for the first time this season, finishing fifth in the Men’s 500m. He had second-place finishes in the quarterfinal and semifinal heats behind Canada’s Steven Dubois, who won the final.
The U.S. Mixed Relay Team also won the B Final in that event. The Men’s Relay finished third in its B Final to take seventh overall.
The World Tour is off until Feb. 7-9, 2025, when the first European event of the season is held in Tilburg, Netherlands.
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.
