Ireen Wust of the Netherlands celebrates after winning the women's 1,500m speed skating final at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing, Feb. 7, 2022. (Xinhua/Wu Wei)
Dutch speed skating legend Ireen Wust won her sixth Olympic gold and 12th Olympic medal after retaining the 1,500m title at Beijing 2022.
BEIJING, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Speed skating legend Ireen Wust from the Netherlands won gold in the women's 1,500m at Beijing 2022 here on Monday to bag her third Olympic gold over the distance.
The most decorated Dutch Olympian of all time clocked one minute and 53.28 seconds, lowering the previous Olympic record of 1:53.51 set by her compatriot Jorien ter Mors at Sochi 2014.
"It's really hard to describe. A lot of emotions, especially good ones," said 35-year-old Wust on winning her sixth Olympic gold.
Wust is now the speed skater with the joint-highest number of Olympic gold medals, sharing the record with Lidiya Skoblikova, who won six golds from three Games between 1960 and 1968.
The victory also made Wust the first person to win three golds non-consecutively, after her previous two golds in 2010 and 2018. Besides the 1,500m event, Wust won three other gold medals from the 3,000m in 2006 and 2014, as well as the team pursuit in 2014.
Wust in action during the women's 1,500m speed skating final. (Xinhua/Wang Fei)
World record holder Miho Takagi from Japan took the silver medal in 1:53.72, losing to Wust once again after her runner-up finish by 0.20 seconds four years ago. Wust's compatriot Antoinette de Jong finished third in 1:54.82.
Two-time Olympian Han Mei finished 11th with 1:56.08, and her Chinese compatriots Yin Qi and Ahenaer Adake took 15th and 17th places respectively.
The men's 1,500m is scheduled for Tuesday, when Ning Zhongyan will strive to become the first Chinese male speed skater to win an Olympic gold. ■
