Irene Schouten of the Netherlands secured her second gold medal of the 2022 Winter Olympics by winning the women’s 5000m speed skating competition on Thursday.
She did so by setting the Olympic record at 6:43.51, which is over three seconds faster than Germany’s Claudia Pechstein’s mark of 6:46.91 reached in 2002. The 29-year-old Dutch athlete swept the women’s long distance races after her gold medal win and Olympic record set in the 3000m last Saturday
Isabelle Weidemann of Canada claimed the silver medal while 34-year-old Czech skater Martina Sablikova earned the bronze.
Schouten took over the lead in the sixth and final pairing.
The ROC’s Natalya Voronina, the world record holder at 6:39.02, led the standings after the first three duos, but Sablikova bested her in the fourth grouping. The Czech skater was consistent during her race with laps between 31.83 and 32.97 for the entire skate.
Weidemann was next and did not record a lap longer than 32.86.
Schouten showed an extraordinary level of endurance, getting faster in each of her final four laps. Her last 400m hit 31.18 seconds on the clock, which was her best mark of the race. She held first-place pace through the final eight laps and blew away Weidemann by nearly five seconds.
The now-three-time Olympic medalist continued the Netherlands’ commanding start to Olympic speed skating competition, as Dutch skaters have won gold in four of the first five events.
The only exception was the men’s 5000m race, in which Dutch skater Patrick Roest set an Olympic record but was bested by Sweden’s Nils van der Poel.
Speed skating returns on Thursday with the men’s 10,000m, which is the longest race of the Olympics. The event starts at 3 a.m. ET.
Check out the full speed skating schedule here.
SEE MORE: Irene Schouten wins speed skating gold in women’s 3000m
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