Stoddard Wins Two Medals in Poland, Remains in Hunt for World Tour Crystal Globe

Corinne Stoddard won individual Silver and Bronze medals while also helping the U.S. Women’s Relay team to a Silver medal at the ISU Short Track World Tour’s third stop of the season in Gdansk, Poland, setting up a final battle with Canada’s Courtney Sarault for the Crystal Globe championship in an Olympic season.

Stoddard, who has reached the individual medals podium six times in three World Tour stops this season, finished second in the Women’s 500m and third in the 1000m. She just missed another medal in the 1500m, finishing .137 seconds behind Sarault in a battle for third place.

Stoddard trails Sarault by 80 points, 700 to 620, in the Crystal Globe race as the World Tour heads to Dordrecht, Netherlands, for the season finale next weekend.

“If I have a really good weekend next weekend maybe I can catch back up,” Stoddard said. “I think it will be really exciting in Dordrecht with the crowd, and I am going to have a lot of family members coming.”

Stoddard’s Silver medal in the 500m was her first in World Tour competition. She finished in 43.406 seconds, placing behind Xandra Velzeboer of the Netherlands in both the final and semifinals.

“Last year I would never even have expected to be in the 500m final, and now I am medaling, and in every A Final,” said Stoddard, who placed third and fourth in the previous World Tour 500m races this year.

Stoddard finished with a time of 1:30.589 in the Women’s 1000m, trailing only winner Hanne Desmet of Belgium in 1:30.422 and Sarault, who crossed the line in 1:30.575.

Kristen Santos-Griswold, the reigning Crystal Globe champion who is recovering from a back injury, finished second in the 500m B Final and fourth in the 1000m B Final.

Stoddard and Santos-Griswold, along with teammates Eunice Lee, Julie Letai and Kamryn Lute led U.S. relay team to its first podium finish of the season, a second-place finish with a time of 4:13.115, trailing Netherlands by .110 seconds.

“I think we are feeling really strong,” Santos-Griswold said. “We work really well together and support each other, and I am expecting some good results at the (Olympic) Games.”

Brandon Kim nearly captured his first World Tour medal of the season, missing the podium by less than half a second in the Men’s 500m. He finished fourth with a time of 41.929 seconds, trailing Canada’s Steven Dubois by .424 seconds.

Andrew Heo reached the B Final in the Men’s 1500m and finished sixth. The U.S. Mixed Relay Team, made up of Stoddard, Santos-Griswold, Kim and Clayton DeClemente placed second in the B Final.

Due to this being an Olympic season, the final World Tour event is Nov. 27-30 in Dordrecht, Netherlands. The short track competition at the 2026 Winter Games runs from Feb. 10-20 in Milan, Italy. The season then wraps up with the ISU Short Track World Championships on March 13-15 in Montreal, Quebec.

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.