BEIJING, China — Fairfield speed skater Kristen Santos missed bringing home any hardware from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
She finished second in the Finals B heat and ninth overall in the 1,500-meter short track event Wednesday morning after winning her quarterfinal heat earlier in the day.
She was positioned to advance to the medal heat during the first 10 laps of the semifinals but lost speed after she was bumped by Japan’s Sumire Kikuchi, after she went down after a third skater collided with her.
The bump was enough to push Santos out of medal contention.
Overall, gold went to South Korea’s Minjeong Choi, silver to Italy’s Ariana Fontana, and bronze to Suzanne Schulting of the Netherlands.
Ahead of Wednesday’s event, Santos raced in the women’s 500 and 1,000m races, along with the women’s 3,000m relay and mixed team relay.
Her favorite shot for a medal came in the 1,000m, but she finished fourth in the final race after she was knocked to the ice by Fontana as she approached the final lap.
After the 1,000m event, Santos said in an Instagram post that the crash was “absolutely heartbreaking, especially when you know you had more to give.”
“I’m beyond grateful for the best support system in the world for making this loss a bit easier to handle,” she said.
She told reporters after the race that there were no hard feelings toward Fontana.
“She is the nicest person in the world,” Santos said, according to USA Today. “She’s such an impressive skater. No bad blood there at all.”
These Winter Games were Santos’ Olympic debut after missing the 2018 Games.
Jennifer Glatz is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jglatz@fox61.com.
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