Kristen Santos-Griswold, Corinne Stoddard forge short track bond beyond the ice

Best friends Kristen Santos-Griswold and Corinne Stoddard, two 2026 Olympic medal contenders, recently created joint social media accounts for the run-up to the Milan Cortina Games.

They just needed a name.

They chose one — for TikTok and Instagram — that fits their journeys in the unpredictable sport of short track speed skating. The handle is Fast But Unstable.

“We have all definitely dealt with a lot of mental health things throughout the years,” Santos-Griswold said. “Any sport, honestly, can be a mental challenge. Especially short track, specifically, where there’s a lot of stuff out of your control in a race. So we kind of had it as like a play on words of unstable mentally, but also physically, because we’ll crash a lot and things like that, too. It’s a little bit of both.”

Santos-Griswold and Stoddard, ranked Nos. 1 and 3 in the world in the 2024-25 season, begin the 2025-26 Olympic season next week at the U.S. Championships at the 2002 Olympic Oval outside Salt Lake City.

It’s not quite an Olympic Trials, but it’s a key stepping stone for anybody looking to make the short track team for February’s Games.

The U.S. Championships determine the women’s and men’s teams (likely five or six per gender) for four ISU World Tour competitions in October and November. Skaters can then qualify for the Olympic team based on World Tour results, with U.S. Championships results being the secondary criteria.

The benchmark to clinch an Olympic spot via the World Tour is one individual podium finish in any race or a pair of top-20 finishes, pending roster limits.

Last season, Santos-Griswold and Stoddard accounted for all of the U.S.’ 18 individual World Tour podiums — nine for each across 18 races.

Next February, either could become the first U.S. woman to win an Olympic short track medal since 2010.

Santos-Griswold, now 30, remembers meeting Stoddard, now 24, for the first time at the 2018 Olympic Trials.

“This little girl is really good,” Santos-Griswold thought. “I asked her how to pronounce her name when she was in one of my races.”

In 2019, Stoddard, whose friends call her Corie, won a world junior title in inline skating and joined Santos-Griswold’s training group on ice in Utah.

In 2022, they skated at their first Olympics together — Santos-Griswold the oldest on the team, Stoddard the youngest.

Santos-Griswold considers Stoddard, plus fellow Olympian and training partner Julie Letai, not just close friends anymore, but family.

“We’ve all seen each other probably at our worst, and had fights that are like you would think we would never speak to each other again,” she said.

Over the last year, the skaters leaned on each other through some of the greatest success of their careers, plus considerable challenges.

Last December, Stoddard earned her first individual World Tour victory after 11 prior second- and third-place finishes. She was joined on the podium by Santos-Griswold in a rare U.S. one-two.

Stoddard, who broke her nose in her first 2022 Olympic race, and skated the rest of the Games unable to breathe through one nostril, spent summer 2024 training to break through.

“The season before that (2023-24), I started noticing that I was one of the top people in the world,” she said. “I was like, if I put everything into this, I know I can be the best. I just started working a lot harder and doing every training with purpose. Whereas before, I was working hard, but I wasn’t as focused as I am now.”

The week after Stoddard’s win, Santos-Griswold notched her first two victories of a trying season that included more crashes (at least six) than wins (four).

Ultimately, Santos-Griswold became the third American to win the crystal globe, which goes to the top short track skater over the entire season. Apolo Ohno (2000-01, ’02-03, ’04-05) and Katherine Reutter ('10-11) also achieved the feat since the short track circuit debuted in 1998-99.

Stoddard finished third overall, her best standing ever, despite dealing with insomnia caused by anxiety starting in January.

“When I won (for the first time) in December, I realized that I could continue to win, but then I started putting pressure on myself to win,” she said.

Stoddard made three individual podiums in the last six World Tour races of the season while often waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to fall back asleep. She got as little as two or three hours of sleep per night.

Stoddard took sleep aids and worked with an insomnia therapist. She decided not to compete at the season-ending World Championships in Beijing in March.

“I had already been through so much that season, and I needed a break,” said Stoddard, whose insomnia is not fully resolved, but it’s not something she’s too worried about now.

Santos-Griswold, who has also dealt with anxiety, regularly checked in on Stoddard. She even offered her a place to nap at her home.

Stoddard reciprocated with her own support during the World Championships.

On the first day of worlds, Santos-Griswold said another skater’s helmet smashed her face in a relay crash. Santos-Griswold, who also had a stomach bug, sat out the rest of the championships, one year after winning a medal in all five races.

"(Stoddard) had talked to me a lot about how she didn’t go (to 2025 Worlds) also because of her health, and how you have to prioritize yourself and your health sometimes, and especially with Olympic year coming up,” Santos-Griswold said. “Talking to her a lot about that, I think helped me a lot with being OK with lying in the hotel room and doing nothing.”

Santos-Griswold and Stoddard spend much off their offseason time together, too. Whether it’s hikes around the Wasatch Range or behind the University of Utah with their dogs, Sunday brunches or just sharing TikToks while side by side on the couch.

They added a new activity this year: washing Santos-Griswold’s hair.

Santos-Griswold shattered her clavicle in a bike accident on May 31. Stoddard spent the next day at the hospital with her before surgery. After the procedure, Santos-Griswold’s limited upper body movement meant she needed help with some daily functions.

“Tried with my husband, and he just doesn’t know how to clean girls’ hair,” Santos-Griswold joked. “So I went to Corie’s, and she washed my hair. It was a very intimate moment.”

Santos-Griswold was off the ice for two or three weeks. All of her training restrictions were lifted by early August.

Stoddard said she’s going into the U.S. Championships skating even better this summer than she was last year.

“This nationals will be a little more competitive than it usually is between me and her,” Stoddard said, “but at the end of the day, we’re still best friends, and I don’t think it’ll matter who beats who.”