Kristen Santos-Griswold is third American to win short track overall season title
Kristen Santos-Griswold has finished the short track speed skating World Tour season ranked No. 1 in the world, becoming the third American to win an overall title.
Santos-Griswold had the best results across 18 total races among the 500m, 1000m and 1500m distances over six stops on the circuit dating to last October.
She wrapped up the overall title this weekend at the 2026 Olympic venue in Milan, Italy, winning the 1000m on Saturday and the 500m on Sunday.
The previous Americans to finish a short track season ranked No. 1 were eight-time Olympic medalist Apolo Ohno (2000-01, '02-03, '04-05) and Katherine Reutter ('10-11), the last American woman to win an Olympic short track medal in 2010. The annual short track World Cup began in 1998-99.
Last season, Santos-Griswold won a medal in all five events at the World Championships, including her first world title in the 1000m.
Santos-Griswold made her Olympic debut in 2022 with a best finish of fourth, then took time to decide whether to keep skating.
This season brought challenges. Santos-Griswold won four individual races, but also crashed at least six times on the World Tour.
'Bad luck seemed to be the theme of the season for me,' she said recently, according to the International Skating Union.
Next up are the World Championships from March 14-16 in Beijing, live on Peacock.
Competition could ratchet up in the 2025-26 Olympic season.
Dutchwoman Suzanne Schulting, the world No. 1 four consecutive seasons from 2018-19 to 2022-23, spent this season skating long track instead as she worked her way back from breaking an ankle at last March's short track worlds. She has said she wants to race both disciplines at the 2026 Olympics.
South Korea's Kim Gil-Li, the 2023-24 overall champion, missed the fifth of six World Tour stops to compete in the Asian Winter Games. That took her out of the running for this season's overall, though she trailed Santos-Griswold after four stops.
Nick Zaccardi,
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LPGA Hall of Famer calls for more to speak out against trans athletes in girls sports Betsy King grew up on 30 acres of land in Reading, Pennsylvania, where she honed a golf swing that would eventually land her in the LPGA and World Golf halls of fame. But golf wasn't her only passion. When older brother Lee left the house, mom often said, 'Take your sister.' And that's how King wound up playing baseball, basketball, hockey and, in elementary school, and tackle football with the neighborhood boys. Those memories come flooding back when King, a six-time major winner, sees biological males competing against females across the country. 'You know, when I was playing with the boys,' said King, 'I mean, it definitely helped my competitiveness to play then against other girls. But I was just trying to play well enough that that they would let me play. Obviously, even at that age, there was a physical difference.' 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Now she'd like to see a federal law put into place that would restrict the participation of biological males in female sports. In February, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that called on the government to "rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities." But that hasn't kept it from happening at high school competitions across the country. President Trump said last week that California would face large-scale fines after a transgender athlete won two medals in the state's track and field championship. 'I just feel badly for the high school girls that have to face it,' said King. 'You know, I've seen a couple of them on TV talking about it. And it really bothers me that the adults haven't stood up for these girls as much as they should.' As for the LPGA's new policy, King would like to see the tour return to a female-at-birth mandate, calling the trend of childhood transitions frightening. "I don't know that at 7 years old, if you really know what you are, who you are, or know what you want to do, to make a decision that will impact you the rest of your life," said King. "We don't listen to many 7-year-olds about a lot of things, right? That you would decide to listen to them about this is kind of frightening." A New York Times/Ipsos survey released in January 2025 found that 79 percent of Americans polled were against allowing biological males who identify as women to participate in women's sports. And yet, so few Hall of Fame-caliber female athletes have come out publicly against it. King, 69, posts frequently about the topic on social media and was especially disheartened recently when, during a floor debate on the Save Women's Sports Act, Pennsylvania state senator Lindsey Williams said, 'I want all girls to know that there are elected officials like me who believe female bodies are just as strong and fast and capable as male bodies.' King said she found Williams' comments to be ridiculous and went searching to confirm they weren't a parody. Five years ago, tennis icon Billie Jean King joined World Cup champion Megan Rapinoe, the WNBA's Candace Parker and nearly 200 athletes in supporting transgender youth participation in sports as part of a response to Idaho legislation that banned trans girls from competing in schools. 'There is no place in any sport for discrimination of any kind,' Billie Jean King said in a Women's Sports Foundation release. 'I'm proud to support all transgender athletes who simply want the access and opportunity to compete in the sport they love. The global athletic community grows stronger when we welcome and champion all athletes – including LGBTQI+ athletes.' Another tennis icon, Martina Navratilova, however, sees it differently than Billie Jean and has been vocal about the subject for years. She's one of the few decorated female athletes to do so. Growing up, Betsy King didn't have the same opportunities as her brother to play organized sports. As a three-sport athlete at Furman, King recalled going to the president's office each year with other female athletes to ask for more money. Female athletes stood up more back then, she noted, out of necessity. Some in King's circle and beyond have commented that there are more pressing issues currently facing the country. Her response: It's possible to be concerned about more than one subject. For example, in September, she'll head back to Africa for the umpteenth time (26th or 27th, she's not sure) to check in on some schools her Arizona church funds in Tanzania. After winning 34 times on the LPGA, King launched her Golf Fore Africa foundation in 2007 and raised roughly $20 million for World Vision, enough to fund 400 wells, at least 50 mechanized water systems and eight maternity wings for local hospitals. Though her work with the foundation has come to an end, she's finding more ways to use her platform. 'You know, I have nothing to lose,' said King on the divisive gender topic. 'I don't have any sponsorships at this stage. I've always been kind of outspoken and strong about values that I think even if I were playing, I would speak up.' Her mother, Helen Szymkowicz King, graduated from the University of Rhode Island in 1940 and was elected into the university's Athletic Hall of Fame as a three-sport athlete. King looks at how much the landscape has changed for women's sports in recent decades and views the transgender debate as a step backward. 'Many of us fought for places to compete when none existed,' King said. 'We cannot surrender our sports or our spaces.' Put another way by one of golf's most decorated American players: It's simply not fair.
