One of the most precisely timed events at the Olympic Winter Games, short track speed skating, is a sport defined by the smallest of margins. Winners are determined by fractions of a second, and one small movement can be the difference between an Olympic medal and going home empty handed. Few know that better than Kristen Santos-Griswold.
The 2022 Olympian has a profound understanding of what it’s like to come close to reaching unprecedented levels of success, only to fall devastatingly short. In 2018, a poorly-timed injury contributed to a fourth-place finish at the U.S. Olympic Trials, leaving Santos-Griswold one spot shy of making her first Olympic team. At her first Olympic Games in 2022, with a lead heading into the final lap of the 1000m event that she was favored to win, a cut to the inside by Italy’s Arianna Fontana caused Santos-Griswold to fall and crash.
Though Fontana later would be disqualified for the interference, Santos-Griswold once again walked away with a fourth-place finish. This time, one spot shy of an Olympic medal and worlds away from where she knew she could be.
“This sport can be really unforgiving,” Santos-Griswold said. “One second of hesitation, one little misstep, one anything, and that can be the end of your race.”
In the aftermath, Santos-Griswold struggled with the idea of other competitors having control over her results. During the buildup to the Games, she seemingly had done everything right — trained as hard as she could, ate the proper foods to fuel her body and rested and recovered well. Though she originally had intended to make 2022 her final season of competition, consistent improvement and her first World Cup win in 2021 began to shift her focus to her untapped potential in the sport. Establishing herself as a favorite to earn a medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Santos-Griswold no longer was solely thinking about Beijing.
But short track, beloved by fans for its high-speed, unpredictability and thrilling nature, once again proved just how quickly things can change. One false move by a competitor on the sport’s biggest stage left Santos-Griswold devastated by an outcome beyond her control. She was forced to take a step back and reconsider her future.
“After the Games and coming home without a medal, some broken dreams, I really struggled with trying to decide if I wanted to keep going in the sport,” she said.
She returned home and took a step away from competition, deciding to sit out the World Speed Skating Championships. Scheduled to start graduate school soon, she took time to contemplate what she wanted her future to look like — and whether or not short track would be part of that future. Factoring into her decision was, once again, the small margins that make the sport she loves so difficult.
I really had to figure out if I did it again — if in four years, I trained right, slept right, ate right, everything — I could go to the Games again in four years and the exact same thing could happen. And I had to decide if I was going to be mentally OK with that and able to handle that.
The decision-making process was anything but easy. Santos-Griswold looked inward as she weighed her options, noting that she didn’t speak to much of anyone about whether or not to continue competing. Despite her independent approach, Santos-Griswold said that one piece of advice in particular really stuck with her during this time of uncertainty.
“I think a big moment for me was someone had told me to 'make little Kristen proud,'” she said. “And then beyond that, making old Kristen proud. Knowing that if I were to step away from the sport right now, I know that I would regret it and miss it a ton. [I would] feel like I was scared and stepped away because of that, rather than really embrace the moment and take it in and be like, 'What can I accomplish?' So that’s what I think it came down [to] for me, was that difference between going another four years, giving it my all and knowing I made little mini-Kristen with her big dreams of going to the Olympics and medaling really happy and proud of herself. And then also, that I can look back on it and know I really gave it my all.”
With newfound purpose, Santos-Griswold got back to work, and she thrived. During the 2022-23 season, she made the podium at all six World Cup competitions. In 2023-24, she won a World Cup race at all three distances (500m, 1000m and 1500m), becoming just the second American after Apolo Ohno to do so. She then went on to secure medals in all five events at the 2024 World Speed Skating Championships, earning her first world title in the 1000m.
The 2024-25 season proved to be even better. Santos-Griswold earned nine individual podium finishes in six World Tour stops, including four first-place finishes. Three of those podium finishes came during the final stop on the ISU Short Track World Tour, which just so happened to be at the exact venue that will host the 2026 Olympic short track events in Milan, Italy. It was here, too, that Santos-Griswold officially claimed her first Crystal Globe trophy, establishing herself as the top-performing short track speed skater in the world.
Just a few short years after a heartbreak that almost sent her walking away for good, Santos-Griswold appears to be at the peak of her athletic career. The journey, though, has not been without its setbacks. Santos-Griswold has encountered several injuries during her climb to the top and has been part of her fair share of crashes. However, it is in these humbling moments that she has been reminded of why she decided to continue training and competing.
“There’s definitely been races and days and all of that where it’s hard,” Santos-Griswold said. “It’s hard to stay positive and it’s hard to be like, ‘I’m doing this because I love it.’ But ultimately, I think I’ve really tried to focus on every practice, going, ‘I’m so lucky that I get to go to practice every day, hang out with my friends.’ We all cheer each other on, push each other, have fun. It’s so much better than going and sitting at a desk every day. And I’m so happy that I get to do that every day. Those are the moments that I want to remember. I want to remember those hard practices where I felt like I couldn’t push through. And then my teammate is like, ‘You’ve got this,’ like, ‘Let’s go.’ We work together and that’s what it all comes down to for me. So, when I look back on everything, I think that’s what I see more, is rather than the wins, while they’re amazing and feel so great, those little steps to get there.”
As Santos-Griswold now looks ahead to the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, she knows more than ever that giving it her all does not guarantee her an Olympic medal. Her tireless training and exceptional results, including the 2025 Crystal Globe, do not guarantee her a better finish than in 2022. In a sport decided by the smallest of margins, being favored in an event does not even guarantee crossing the finish line. And yet, she continues. Not for the outcome, but for all of the steps she will take along the way.
“Even still, I think it’s hard to not focus on this end goal because that is what we all dream of and hope for,” Santos-Griswold said. “But ultimately, I decided that I’m doing it for the love of the sport. I love pushing myself every day. I love seeing how much faster I can get, how much better I can get. And I was like, at the end of the day, if I go to the Games again in four years and the exact same thing happens, it would all be worth it still. I really just wanted to take that step back and focus on the journey there rather than that end result.”