Nils van der Poel spoke his mind, then got back to racing. Turns out, it was just him against the clock.
The Swedish speedskater broke his own world record and captured his second gold medal of the Beijing Olympics with a dominant victory in the men’s 10,000-meter Friday.
Van der Poel added to his victory in the 5,000, which was a much closer affair. The longest race on the Olympic program was a blowout. He underestimated what he had in those powerful legs.
He almost did, stumbling a bit with about 2 1/2 laps remaining. But van der Poel managed to stay on his feet, swung both arms to build extra speed and breezed across the line with plenty of time to spare in 12 minutes, 30.74 seconds.
The Swede easily broke the world mark of 12:32.95 that he set in February 2021 and was more than 9 seconds ahead of the Olympic record set four years ago by reigning champion Ted-Jan Bloemen of Canada.
The silver medal went to Patrick Roest of the Netherlands, the same spot he took behind van der Poel in the 5,000, but this time he was nearly 14 seconds off the winning pace in 12:44.59.
The margin in the 5,000 was just 0.47 seconds.
Van der Poel’s victory came after he ripped the Dutch federation over a report that it was trying to influence ice makers and other officials at the Olympic oval to set up conditions that benefit its skaters.
While saying he had nothing against athletes from the Netherlands, van der Poel called the report a sign of “corruption” that needed to be investigated by the IOC and the International Skating Union.
Dutch officials shrugged off the complaints, but van der Poel had no regrets about taking on such a hot-button issue while in the midst of competing at the Olympics. He said he’s received support from plenty of other competitors.
After his performance in the 5,000, the Dutch skater thought he might have a chance to knock off van der Poel. Actually, he had no chance.
Davide Ghiotto skated in the next-to-last pair with van der Poel and could barely see him up ahead.
But the Italian’s time of 12:45.98 stood up for the bronze, setting off a raucous celebration on the infield as he was swarmed by teammates and coaches.
Bloemen finished eighth, backing off during his race to conserve his energy for the team pursuit.
Jorrit Bergsma of the Netherlands failed to become the third skater to win three medals in speedskating’s longest Olympic race. He finished fourth, about 3 seconds behind Ghiotto. Bergsma won the gold in 2014 and a silver in 2018.
Van der Poel is the only skater standing up to the powerful Dutch teams, which has won the other four events at the Ice Ribbon oval and eight medals overall.
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