“Kristen is definitely a role model to everyone on the team,” says teammate Julie Letai. No matter what happens, they’re the only people who understand what I’ve gone through, and I’m the only person who can understand what they go through.” It’s totally a different type of relationship - especially teammates you become close with - because it really is unconditional.
“But it’s not even that we’re just friends. But at the same time, your teammates are also some of your main competitors. “Then also you need each other to train, and you need to your teammates to get better so that you get better. “It’s definitely a weird atmosphere at short track because it’s mostly an individual sport, but then we have team events, like the relay,” explains Santos-Griswold. So, I think it was just so important for me to have another thing to be so passionate about - and to know that beyond skating, there are other things that are important to me.”Īmong those things are her two huskies, Koda and Bear, and her teammates, several of whom served as bridesmaids at her wedding. You go home and you’re thinking about training, and then you go to bed dreaming about training, and then you wake up and go to training, and then you eat a meal based off of how it’s gonna fuel you for training. “And I feel like that’s a really good thing - to kind of find that balance beyond just training every single day. “While I was still training going, I had something else going on outside of the sport,” she shared. She took some extra time away during the offseason, getting married to longtime partner Travis Griswold, and made the decision to defer graduate school at the University of Utah, where she plans to study physical therapy. “That was something that was a little bit hard to come to terms with – and that’s part of the sport – but I think at the same time, that circumstance was something that also motivated me to want to keep skating.” MORE FROM ON HER TURF: PHF storylines that set the stage for the 2022-23 hockey seasonĪn extended break didn’t hurt either. I was like, ‘I ate right… I went to bed at the right time, I didn’t go out every night’… I felt like I sacrificed so much and I did everything right and it still didn’t happen for me. “Last year especially and in the years leading up to it, I trained so hard. “An aspect of it that can be really hard to handle is this feeling of like, no matter what you do to prepare, you’re never fully prepared, you know?” she says. While the Connecticut native was mentally prepared for the intangible forces beyond her control - the things that make short track, well, short track - Santos-Griswold admits she was unprepared for how the outcome at the Olympics would shake the very foundation of her thinking. It was that success that had Santos thinking the 2021-22 season might be her last, but the Winter Olympics proved to be a turning point. woman to record two podium finishes in a single World Cup event in nearly a decade. She had an especially successful 2021-22 season, during which she became became the first U.S. She has eight World Cup medals to-date, including 1500m bronze from last week’s World Cup stop in Montreal. Santos-Griswold is the most decorated American female short track speed skater in recent years. I don’t know - I feel like I would have just kind of wasted everything I’ve worked for.” “I just felt like I’m still improving, and to step away from it (after Beijing) would have just been too hard. “Ultimately, I felt like a lot of unfinished business in the sport,” Santos told On Her Turf ahead of this weekend’s World Cup stop in Salt Lake City. Fontana was penalized for a lane change causing contact, and Santos-Griswold finished fourth – just off the podium. In third place with just two laps remaining in the women’s 1000m final, Santos-Griswold crashed while trying to move inside on short track legend Arianna Fontana of Italy. With the 2022-23 ISU World Cup short track speed skating season underway, the 28-year-old Santos-Griswold has a renewed competitive spirit and a new perspective, thanks in part to a very public disappointment at the Beijing Olympics in February. SALT LAKE CITY - Kristen Santos-Griswold has unfinished business.
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