Corinne Stoddard Closes Out Montreal World Tour Stops With A Pair Of Bronze Medals

Corinne Stoddard won a pair of Bronze medals in the ISU Short Track World Tour’s second consecutive weekend in Montreal, Canada.

Stoddard, a 2022 Olympian, increased her season medal count to three as she took on the world’s top short trackers in the Women’s 1000m and 1500m, including teammate Kristen Santos-Griswold.

Stoddard medaled in the 1000m for the second consecutive week and also reached the podium in the 1500m, a race in which Santos-Griswold fell in a late collision with Choi Min-Jeong of South Korea.

“My weekend strategy is to race with confidence and know that I am one of the strongest skaters in the world,” Stoddard said. “Sometimes I get stuck on the idea that certain people are better than me, and I’m trying to get better about not underestimating myself.”

Santos-Griswold, who entered the weekend as the Women’s Overall leader and was one spot ahead of Stoddard in both the 1000m and 1500m last week, did not medal in either race this time.

Stoddard won two individual medals for the first time this season.

Choi won the 1000m by passing Xandra Velzeboer of the Netherlands late in the race. Stoddard finished third with a time of 1 minute, 30.779 seconds, just .283 seconds behind the winner.

“My favorite final from this weekend was the 1000m because I put up a good fight against the other competitors,” Stoddard said.

The next day, Sunday, the 1500m was even more dramatic. Santos-Griswold, Choi, Hanne Desmet of Belgium and Kim Gilli of South Korea all were in a fight for the lead. Desmet won the race ahead of Kim, and a collision between Choi and Santos-Griswold sent both out of the race as Stoddard cruised into third place with a time of 2:27.482.

“When I finish a final in the top three, usually I have mixed emotions depending on how the race turned out,” Stoddard said. “Like in the 1000m, I definitely earned that medal and I was super stoked with my performance, whereas in the 1500m I messed up toward the end of the race and wasn’t in position to win a medal anymore, but then ended up getting lucky. And a lucky medal doesn’t feel the same. I like to earn my medals.”

Santos-Griswold rebounded from the crash to skate in the 500m but fell to the ice again in the final.

“It hurt pretty bad,” Santos-Griswold said. “I was hurting going into the five (500m), but I fought hard out there, and I’ve got to be proud of myself for that.”

“This will be my wiped weekend,” she added. “I am definitely ready for some rest and then we can get ready for the next rounds.”

Santos-Griswold is fourth in the season standings with 338 points.

Stoddard didn’t qualify for the A Final in the 500m, but she won the B Final with a time of 43.548 seconds.

On the Men’s side, Andrew Heo made two B Finals. He finished fourth, or 10th overall, in the 1500m, one place ahead of teammate Clayton DeClemente. Heo also finished fourth, or eighth overall, in the 500m.

The U.S. mixed relay team placed fourth in the B Final.

The World Tour resumes Dec. 6-8 in Beijing.

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.