1,000 metres, Women

In Beijing, Japan’s Miho Takagi had won the gold ahead of Jutta Leerdam of the Netherlands. The two had divided the World titles since then, with Leerdam winning in 2023 and Takagi in 2024 and 2025, with the other gaining bronze on each occasion. In the 2025/26 season, Leerdam had been the stronger of the two, winning three World Cup races, against one for Takagi (in the absence of Leerdam). But Leerdam had only narrowly managed to reach Milano. At the Dutch Olympic Trials, she fell during her race. She was only appointed for the 1,000 m as the Dutch needed to limit their team to nine skaters, and the third place 1,000 m skater did not make the cut. Behind these two contenders, Femke Kok and Brittany Bowe were considered outsiders. Kok, originally a 500 m specialist had greatly improved her 1,000 m in recent years. Runner-up at the 2025 Worlds, she had won her first World Cup in the distance earlier in the season, as well as the overall classification. Bowe, the bronze medallist in 2022, had finished 4th or 5th in each World Cup.

The first time was set by Suzanne Schulting of the Netherlands, reigning Olympic champion in the 1,000 m - but then in a different sport, short-track. Her 1:15.46 stood for 10 pairs, when the Olympic 500 m champion, Erin Jackson lowered it to 1:15.00. In pair 13, Kok blasted away in the fastest 200 m (17.47). By the 600 m, she had already opened up a 1-second gap to Bowe, which nearly doubled in the final lap. With 1:12.59, she took 0.6 seconds from Takagi’s Olympic record, and presented Takagi and Leerdam with a major challenge. Both of them had a slower opening than Kok, but with a 26.10 lap, Leerdam took the lead. She held on to finish in 1:12.31, faster than the field had recorded in the high altitude rinks earlier in the season, and a new unofficial low-altitude world record.

Leerdam already was an internet celebrity by the 2022 Games, and she became even more famous when in 2023 she started a relation with Jake Paul, a noted American social media personality noted for his attempts at professional boxing. Leerdam’s fiancée Paul frequently visits her races, and he was also in attendance in Milano. The medals for Leerdam and Kok were the 11th and 12th medals for the Netherlands in the event, tying the United States for most medals won, and surpassing the USSR for most golds won (five). Takagi’s bronze was her eighth Olympic medal, making her the first non-gymnast from Japan to win eight Olympic medals. Takagi also became the second athlete to win three medals in the event, after Bonnie Blair.