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Femke Kok beats Jutta Leerdam in speedskating’s 500 and adds an Olympic title to her world record

By HOWARD FENDRICH

MILAN — Dutch speedskater Femke Kok added a gold medal and the Olympic record in the 500 meters to her world mark, beating defending champion Erin Jackson head-to-head in the final heat Sunday at the Milan Cortina Games and relegating 1,000 winner to Jutta Leerdam to the silver.

Kok powered through the final turn and easily pulled away from Jackson, finishing in 36.49 seconds — a whopping 0.66 seconds ahead of teammate Leerdam, who defeated her in the 1,000 meters Monday.

Miho Takagi of Japan was third in 37.27, picking up her second bronze of these Winter Games and ninth career Olympic medal. Her totals: two golds, four silvers and three bronzes.

Jackson was fifth in 37.32, four years after her 500 triumph for the United States made her the first Black woman to win an individual gold medal at a Winter Olympics in any sport.

When Kok crossed the line, she threw her arms overhead to the delight of the many, many Dutch spectators, then skated a little more before covering her face with both hands.

That was quite a contrast to Leerdam’s reaction after she temporarily took the lead in the 12th of 15 heats.

She got off to something of a slugging start and was behind Takagi’s pace after 100 meters. While she did manage to better that time, she let out a big exhale afterward and didn’t look particularly pleased.

Kok prevented Leerdam from becoming just the third female speedskater to win the 500 and 1,000 at the same Olympics.

Also Sunday, Italy beat the U.S. head-to-head by nearly a second in the men’s team pursuit quarterfinals but both advanced because they turned in the two fastest overall times. The Italian trio of Davide Ghiotto, Andrea Giovannini and Michele Malfatti finished in 3 minutes, 38.40 seconds, and the U.S. squad of Ethan Cepuran, Casey Dawson and Emery Lehman clocked 3:39.37.

In Tuesday’s semifinals, Italy will meet the Netherlands, and the Americans — who left the Beijing Games with the bronze and set the event’s world record in November — go up against China. The final also will be contested that day.

Two-time defending Olympic champion Norway finished with only the sixth-best time of the eight quarterfinalists Sunday and was eliminated.



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