8-time Olympic medalist Apolo Anton Ohno reacts as the Netherlands grabs another gold in women’s speed skating while Erin Jackson was unable to defend her title from the 2022 games.
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Video Transcript
All right, women’s long track speed skating, 500 meters, the classic sprint.
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The Dutch went one, two.
Femke Kok just made history, new Olympic record.
The margin of victory was .66 seconds, over a half a second over second place, the largest winning margin since 1972, 54 years!
The Dutch have always been exceptional in long track speed skating.
They’ve got a long, rich history of being dominant for decades, but the elusive 500 meters has somehow not been within their reach until tonight.
And Femke Kok, who was silver in the women’s 1,000 meters, swapped positions with Jutta Leerdam, who won the 1,000, who now, Jutta, won 500 meters silver medal, and Femke Kok absolutely crushed it tonight.
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Our gal, let’s talk about the Americans for a second.
Erin jackson, the reigning Olympic champion in the 500 meters, exceptional, crossing over from inline speed skating over to ice.
Only a few years of training, so gifted genetically, so incredibly explosive.
She had a great race in the first 150 to 200 meters.
To me, it looked like she was running a little bit.
When I say running in long track speed skating, it looks like she was pushing back versus what we call pushing to the side and getting that full range of motion every time that she was actually extending and transferring her weight.
I don’t know if she was a little bit rushed, or she was just trying to get a higher cadence of foot speed there, but she finished in fifth place.
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Tonight was really all about the Dutch with the one-two.
Exceptional job by the Dutch once again, and they’ve got a ton of confidence.
They are winning many medals across the skating events.
We saw it last night in short track speed skating, Jens, who was the existing 1,000-meter Olympic champion just a couple of days prior, won the 1,500 meters!
So they have something that they are doing exceptionally well.
They’re timing their physical peak, which is so hard.
You got four to eight years of training destined for this one race in the women’s 500 meters, which is just a c- you know, 30 It’s a half, it’s a half a minute long.
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I mean, it’s really exceptional.
All about power, precision, and technically, these athletes are skating so well.
So the Americans just off the podium.
There’s still more races to come.
There’s a lot more action.
We hope you tune in, long track speed skating, and I’ll see you at the short track rink in a couple of days.