Last shot for this CT Olympian ends in heartbreak with disqualification following collision

Kristen Santos-Griswold was waiting for the 1,500-meter short track Olympic quarterfinal to restart after a fall had knocked her and two others out of the race, halting the event after five laps on Friday at the Milano Ice Skating Arena.

Suddenly, she appeared to be stunned as she was told she had been disqualified. Santos-Griswold put her skate guards on and left the rink; her 2026 Olympics were over.

It was the last race of what turned out to be a disappointing Olympics for Santos-Griswold, who grew up in Fairfield and learned to speed skate in Connecticut. NBC announcers said she and Polish skater Kamila Sellier, who also fell, made an illegal lane pass against Italy’s Arianna Fontana, who has won 15 Olympic medals, and were penalized. Fontana, who appeared to be injured, was able to continue the race after it was restarted and advanced to the final, where she finished fifth. Hanna Desmet of Belgium ended up winning the heat.

Sellier was injured; she was taken out of the arena on a stretcher and there was a trail of blood on the ice that workers had to clean up after the break. She gave a thumbs-up to the crowd upon leaving the arena.

NBC did not show a replay of the incident but a video of the incident on X showed that Sellier’s face above her eye appeared to be cut by Santos-Griswold’s skate blade as the two crashed and took out Fontana as well.

More top skaters went down in the same corner in the semifinals and the announcers –- one of whom was short track speed skating Olympic medalist Katherine Reutter-Adamek — speculated there could be something wrong with the ice.

Later in the 1,500-meter finals, American Corinne Stoddard won the bronze medal, while Gilli Kim of Korea won the gold and her teammate Minjeong Choi the silver. It’s the first time in 16 years that an American woman has won an individual medal in short-track.

Stoddard set the early pace in the final race of the Olympic program, but Choi swept to the front with two laps to go as the crowd rose to its feet. Gilli quickly went with her and the 21-year-old made the decisive pass on her teammate before crossing the finishing line.

Stoddard raised her arms in triumph as she crossed the line a split-second later for third place.

Meanwhile Santos-Griswold, 31, was hoping to come back from a disappointing 2022 Olympic Games, where she finished just off the podium in fourth in the finals of the 1,000 meters after being taken out by another skater.

Last year, she was recognized as the top-ranked short track speed skater in the world and expectations were high coming into these Games in Italy, where she was set to race the 500, 1,000, 1,500 and multiple relays. Santos-Griswold was the 2024 world champion in the 1,000 meters and silver medalist in the 1,500.

But things did not go well in Milan. Her team finished fourth in the B final in the mixed team relay after a teammate fell. She finished fourth in the B final of the 500 meters. She didn’t advance out of the quarterfinals in the 1,000 meters, finishing third in her heat. Friday was her last shot and it was not to be.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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