Kristen Santos competes in at the ISU World Cup on Nov. 30, 2019 in Nagoya, Japan.
First, a national record. Then, her first individual world cup medal. Now, with bronze in the women’s 3,000-meter relay Sunday at the ISU Short Track Speed Skating World Cup in Shanghai, Kristen Santos is spreading her success to the U.S. team.
Santos, the 25-year-old who skated to a new American record in the 1,000 during a world cup event at the Utah Olympic Oval in Salt Lake City last month, teamed with 2018 Olympian Maame Biney, Corinne Stoddard and Julie Letai as the U.S. took bronze in the 3,000 relay, the only American medal of the world cup stop in China’s largest city.
The team finished in 4 minutes, 13.280 seconds, 3.82 seconds behind World Cup leader Canada, powered by Alyson Charles, Courtney Lee Sarault, Danae Blais and Kim Boutin, whose team crossed the line in 4:09.460. An experienced Dutch team that included Olympic gold medalist Suzanne Schulting and Olympic medalists Lara van Ruijven and Yara van Kerkhov went down to the wire with Canada but was unable to overtake them, finishing 0.35 seconds behind.
The result is the latest exploit in a string of recent successes for Santos, who proved her mettle with bronze in the 1,000 meters at the world cup in Nagoya, Japan, last weekend, the first individual world cup medal she’s won in an international elite career that reaches back to 2014. It’s the first medal of the season for the 3,000-meter relay team, which finished second in the semifinal in Nagoya but did not medal in the final.
Blythe Lawrence is a journalist based in Seattle. She has covered two Olympic Games and is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
