Canadian short track speedskater Kim Boutin set a world record in the 500 meters and Kristen Santos set a U.S. record at 1,000m at the first World Cup stop of the season over the weekend at Utah Olympic Oval.
Boutin became the first woman to complete short track’s shortest distance in less than 42 seconds, racing to a time of 41.936 seconds in the semifinals. She went on to win the event along with the 1,500m.
The previous record of 42.335 seconds, posted in 2016 by Britain’s Elise Christie, also was set at the facility outside Salt Lake City.
Santos set her record in the semifinals with a time of 1:28.485, breaking the 2016 record of Olympic medalist Katherine Reutter. That time still wasn’t fast enough to advance past the semifinals, and she wound up finishing third in the B final.
The only other U.S. skater to reach a B final was Corinne Stoddard in the 1,500m, though the mixed relay team of Santos, Maame Biney, Aaron Tran and Thomas Hong beat Canada to take fourth.
As a reminder, you can watch the events from the 2019-20 speed skating season live and on-demand with the ‘Speed Skating Pass’ on NBC Sports Gold. Go here to sign up for access. NBC Sports Gold gives subscribers an unprecedented level of access on more platforms and devices than ever before.
OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!