Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong of the Netherlands claimed gold in the women's 1,500-meter speedskating at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, beating Norway's Ragne Wiklund by a mere 0.06 seconds for her first Olympic gold. Japan's Miho Takagi finished seventh after fading in the final lap.
At the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics on Friday, Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong of the Netherlands won the women's 1,500-meter speedskating with a time of 1 minute, 54.9 seconds, securing her first Olympic gold and sixth career medal overall. She finished 0.06 seconds ahead of silver medalist Ragne Wiklund of Norway, while Valerie Maltais of Canada took bronze, 0.31 seconds behind.
"This medal means everything to me. I already had (Olympic) silver and bronze medals, but Olympic gold was the one still missing. I'm so proud I did it," Rijpma-de Jong said. She added, "Skating here with a full crowd of Dutch people, all yelling me to the finish line, was incredible."
Wiklund, who skated just before the winner, said, "She has been performing so, so well for so many years. She knows what she’s doing."
Rijpma-de Jong, the 2023 world champion in the 1,500, already had a silver from team pursuit at these Games, bringing her Olympic tally to one gold, two silvers, and three bronzes. Wiklund holds a silver in the 3,000 and bronze in the 5,000; Maltais has gold in team pursuit and bronze in the 3,000.
The Dutch women dominated, with golds from Femke Kok in the 500 and Jutta Leerdam in the 1,000. Joy Beune, who won all four 1,500 World Cup races this season, missed qualification after Dutch Olympic trials in December, sparking debate on selection.
American Brittany Bowe placed fourth, her final Olympics at age 38; she has bronzes from the 1,000 in 2022 and team pursuit in 2018. Bowe got engaged to U.S. women's hockey captain Hilary Knight during the Games. Japan's Miho Takagi, on pace for a medal, faded in the final lap to finish seventh.
