Before the Olympic 500-m women’s speedskating competition on early Sunday evening in Milan, the orange-clad Dutch enthusiasts at the venue—about 94.7% of long-track fans here have Holland connections—had no problem sharing their desired outcome of this race. They wanted a flip-flop.
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Jutta Leerdam, who broke the Olympic record on Feb. 9 in the 1000 m—and, you likely have heard, is engaged to social media influencer-slash-boxer Jake Paul—already had her gold. Hopefully, she’d finish second in the 500, which is the strong suit of her teammate, Femke Kok, the 1000-m silver medalist. The Dutch were all-in on Kok for the shorter sprint. It was time for Kok to claim her prize.
Plus, many Dutch supporters don’t seem all that enamored with Leerdam’s famous fiancée. “He’s a little too extra for the Dutch,” says Yvette Reijtenbagh, who was wearing an orange beanie embroidered with the Netherlands flag. (When I asked her if she was from the Netherlands, she replied dryly, “No. Iceland.”)
Read more: Jordan Stolz, Double Olympic Champion at 21, Could Already Be the Speedskating GOAT
“He’s showboaty,” says Else Baartman, 57, a secretary who lives in the northern part of the country. “He’s a little over the top,” notes Daniel Houben, a 37-year-old actuary from Holland who now lives in Switzerland. Perhaps Houben caught Paul’s entry into the Milan Speed Skating Stadium, surrounded by an entourage a half-dozen deep, including two humongous security guards and a guy filming his every move.
Unlike in the men’s 500 and 1000 races, which American Jordan Stolzwon over Dutch rival Jenning de Boo in dramatic fashion, Team Netherlands left satisfied on Sunday. Kok, who has been dominating the 500 all season long, broke an Olympic record of her own; her time of 36.49 seconds is also the new fastest-ever time at sea level. Her margin of victory over silver medalist Leerdam, .66 seconds, is the largest in the 500-event since the 1972 Games in Sapporo, Japan.
“We are a really small country,” says Kok. “But we can do speedskating.”
No doubt. Stolz’s chase of four gold medals is gobbling up most of the sport’s Olympics headlines. But between long-track and short-track, the Netherlands tops the table in Milan: the Dutch have won 5 golds, and 11 total medals (Italy is second, with 3 golds and 5 total, respectively).
American Erin Jackson, the defending Olympic champion, finished fifth. She was paired with Kok in the final group. Jackson’s strong first 100-m—she called it the best start of her career—had her in medal contention. But Jackson stumbled out of a turn and couldn’t make up enough time to reach the podium. “For her to be able to basically do what I did last Olympic cycle, come in ranked number one, winning consistently, and then to do it at the Olympics, yeah, it’s really awesome,” says Jackson.
The Dutch champions are cut from different cloths. Kok has a lower-key public presence than her teammate. Her Instagram posts mostly feature ice life: one thumbnail shows in a produce section. You can find Leerdam, however, on a private plane, lounging at a resort with Paul, or in a fashion shoot. That may explain, in part, why Leerdam has 6.2 million followers on the platform, while Kok has 285,000.
They do express admiration for one another. “We wanted to push each other to the highest level,” says Kok. With a pair of Olympic records in hand, mission accomplished. “She’s a different person than me, but we’re still good, you know?” says Kok. “In the beginning, when we came up, the media was like making it, ‘oh, she’s this, you’re that. But we’re not like this. We have respect.”
It helps that Leerdam, who will leave Milan with a pair of medals, has wholly earned her celebrity. “She’s a phenom,” says American Sarah Warren. “She had a ton of eyes on her, and she put it down, and she stood up to the pressure.”
Leerdham navigates a different set of challenges than her competitors, namely tabloid attention. “It’s not always easy, especially with the media, because they want stories, and if they don’t have stories, they make up stories,” she says. “That is sometimes hard to deal with as an athlete, if you just want to focus on skating fast or on your races.” Leerdam cites a rumor claiming that she and Stolz were training together. She actually thought this was a good idea, so she and Stolz did skate a few laps, she says, about a week or so ago.
Someone asked Leerdham, now that the competition is over, if she planned on enjoying Milan in the coming days. “I don’t really know yet what the plan is,” says Leerdham. “We will see.”
Odds are, we’ll all find out soon enough.
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