1,500 metres, Women

With defending and three-time Olympic champion Ireen Wüst retiring after the Beijng Games, this left 1,500 m title open. Joy Beune was the obvious candidate for the title, having won the 2025 World Title and all four World Cup races she contested in the 2025/2026 season. However, she had failed to qualify for the Olympics at the Dutch Olympic Trials, missing in the cut-off there by 0.17 seconds. With Beune out, the role of favourite fell to Miho Takagi. Silver medallist in 2022, she had won the only World Cup of the season that Beune did not race in, as well as the overall World Cup title. In addition she had won the 2024 world title in the event, and had already earned three bronzes in MilanoCortina. There were various others mentioned for a medal position: Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong (bronze in 2022), Ragne Wiklund (2021 World Champion), Brittany Bowe (2015 World Champion) and Han Mei (2-time World Championship medalist).

Competition was opened by Femke Kok, who had not skated a 1,500 m since she was a junior, but had surprising friend and foe by bettering the track record at a test race in Heerenveen. She followed this up by qualifying at the Dutch Trials, and was considered an outsider. Racing alone, the sprinter started fast and faded in the final lap. Given the usual fast times at Milano, she was disappointed to finish in 1:54.79. In fact, the time remained fastest through the ice preparation break, with only compatriot Marijke Groenewoud coming close (1:55.16). Only in pair 10 was Kok’s time finally beaten. Valérie Maltais, who had already won gold in the team pursuit and bronze in the 3,000 m, gained a lot of ground in the final two laps, resulting in 1:54.40. Three pairs later, Maltais’ good friend Wiklund mounted a serious attack on the leading time. Despite losing ground in the final lap, the Norwegian bettered the best mark to 1:54.15 Next up were Rijpma-de Jong and Bowe. As a sprinter, Bowe opened fast, with Rijpma-de Jong not far behind. At the bell, both skaters were slightly faster than Wiklund. While Bowe could not keep the pace in the final lap (1:54.70), Rijpma-de Jong did hold on and finished after 1:54.09. In the final pair, Takagi then took off 0.3 seconds faster than the leading time, building out that advantage to 0.4 seconds at 1,100 m. By the final curve, the virtual difference (visible in the stadium and on tv) hovered between -0.1 and +0.1 seconds, but eventually Takagi faded and fell back further, finishing in 1:54.86.

It was the sixth Olympic medal for Rijpma-de Jong, but her first Olympic title. It marked the fifth consecutive time a Dutch skater had won the event, with Wüst winning it in 2010, 2018 and 2022, and Jorien ter Mors in 2014. For both Wiklund and Maltai it was the third medal of the Games.