Dennis

Insane to see NL so close to the top 3

I mostly agree, though I dispute your last point. Apart from Velzeboer’s 500m, the Dutch weren't favorites in their winning events; they simply had everything break in their favor. And in long track the women’s 1,500m was won by 0.06 seconds, and the men’s mass start succeeded only because the field, except for Thorup, failed to counter the most predictable Dutch strategy possible. Furthermore, top 8 data from Milan proves speed skating is highly global, certainly no less than i.e. XC skiing or biathlon that also have 23 events combined. The competition is there, the Dutch skaters just seized the margins. Short track (14 countries in 9 events, of which 8 countries winning at least 1 medal): Europe: North-America: Asia: Long track (18 countries in 14 events, of which 10 countries winning at least 1 medal): Europe: Asia: North-America: Compared to other sports with many events: Cross-country skiing (13 countries in 11 events (so far), of which 8 countries winning at least 1 medal): Europe: Asia: no top 8 spots North-America: Biathlon (12 countries in 11 events, of which 8 countries winning at least 1 medal [all European]): Europe: Asia: no top 8 spots North-America:

Let’s go! 10th (and final) gold medal for us these games, outperforming all expectations

Nobody wanted to risk bringing Stolz in perfect position to the last sprint, and then this happens.

What a dream finish to Bergsma’s Olympic career at age 40! And Thorup!

Pergher just missing out on a medal as well, but what an amazing result for her

Kok! Winning gold by 0.66 seconds on a 500m is insane!

With that opening, I expected more

Yes, while Lamarche shows high consistency, a performance gap appears to exist between the top five skaters and the rest of the field. Lamarche finished 9th in the overall World Cup standings with an average placement of 11th, notably without any top 7 finishes during the season. Several factors contribute to my prediction for her: She finished only one point ahead of Silaeva and two points ahead of Wójcik, both of whom trended upward in the final World Cup weekend. Leerdam competed in six of the nine races, outperforming Lamarche in every instance where they both competed. Takagi almost never competes in the World Cup circuit, but delivers during big championships (e.g., her silver in Beijing 2022 out of nowhere). Kim Min-Sun is an experienced skater with many wins on the 500m. We can see that other experienced athletes such as Lollobrigida, Bergsma, Maltais, and Dubreuil have all exceeded expectations in the past week. Lee Na-Hyun and Boersma held higher average placements (4/7 in the top 6 and 3/7 in the top 7, respectively) but skipped the final two World Cup races, impacting their final standing relative to Lamarche. I think today's field can be categorized into three distinct levels based on this season's results: Leader: Femke Kok is in a league of her own Podium Contenders: A group of four (Ziomek-Nogal, Jackson, Yoshida, and Leerdam) will most likely compete for the remaining podium spots. The Mid-Field: The skaters ranked between 6th (Warmuth) and 19th (Hiller-Donnelly) consistently finish behind the top five but could finish in any order, as they have constantly traded positions throughout the season. Any of them could finish on the podium on an exceptional day and when the podium contenders fail.

Prediction for today´s women´s 500m: Femke Kok Kaja Ziomek-Nogal Erin Jackson Yukino Yoshida Jutta Leerdam Sophie Warmuth Miho Takagi Martyna Baran Anna Boersma Serena Pergher Lee Na-Hyun Kim Min-Sun Andżelika Wójcik Kristina Silaeva Béatrice Lamarche Tian Ruining Chen Ying-Chu Rio Yamada Carolina Hiller-Donnelly Brooklyn McDougall Wang Jingziqian Julie Nistad Samsonsen Sarah Warren Ellia Smeding Anna Ostlender Fran Vanhoutte Maybritt Vigl Nikola Zdráhalová Arina Ilyachshenko

The judge laughed because the screens in the stadium showed that Van ‘t Wout got a penalty

3 individual medals this tournament so far, 3 gold medals for

Prediction for tomorrow's 500m: Jordan Stolz Damian Żurek Jenning de Boo Kim Jun-Ho Wataru Morishige Marek Kania Yevgeniy Koshkin Bjørn Magnussen Cooper McLeod Marten Liiv Laurent Dubreuil Xue Zhiwen Sebas Diniz Tatsuya Shinhama Gao Tingyu Katsuhiro Kuratsubo Lian Ziwen Anders Johnson Koo Kyung-Min Joep Wennemars Piotr Michalski Cédrick Brunet Nil Llop Izquierdo Zach Stoppelmoor Jeffrey Rosanelli Henrik Fagerli Rukke Moritz Klein Ignaz Gschwentner Hendrik Dombek

Jilek! Amazing podium, with a beautiful medal for Poland and an unexpected medal for 40-year-old Bergsma!

What just happened?

The times skated in the previous round.

Such dominance from Velzeboer!

This could be the most exciting Olympic 10,000m in history. It’s a total toss-up right now, especially since we’ve only seen one international 10k this season and several big names were hidden in the B-group. The 5,000m results definitely shook things up. Lorello is trending much higher than expected, and while Eitrem is in incredible form, he’s never actually won an international 10k. Bart Swings is another wild card. He had a disappointing 5k, but he did set a strong national record in that lone 10k earlier this season. It'll be interesting to see how deep he's willing to dig here, knowing the Mass Start is his main priority later on. Below is my pre-Olympic ranking, but as you can see, the podium is anyone's guess now: Vladimir Semirunnii Metoděj Jílek Davide Ghiotto Timothy Loubineaud Sander Eitrem Bart Swings Jorrit Bergsma Riccardo Lorello Casey Dawson Sigurd Henriksen Ted-Jan Bloemen Stijn van de Bunt

Wow! Lollobrigida strikes again!

This would have been my pre-Olympic prediction. Lollobrigida will probably finish higher knowing what we know now. This is always a tough distance to predict with so little 5.000m races during the season. Ragne Wiklund Isabelle Weidemann Sandrine Tas (would be great to see a Belgian female skater win a medal here) Maira Jasch (German skaters disappointed so far, but I still think she could be the surprise of the day) Merel Conijn (definitely prefers this distance over the 3.000m, but not sure if she's much better than she was last Saturday) Marina Zueva Martina Sáblíková (best ever skater on this distance, but not sure how well she is recovered from her illness that kept her out of the 3.000m. I want to remain optimistic in her final international race of her career) Francesca Lollobrigida (reigning World Champion and in better shape than expected, so will definitely finish higher) Bente Kerkhoff (no idea what to expect from her, her team mates (Groenewoud and Conijn) were in poor shape in the 3.000m) Tai Zhien Nadezhda Morozova (skated a great 3.000m so she might finish higher, but her 1.000m was underwhelming) Laura Hall

Wennemars will use the option to reskate in about 20 minutes from now.

It's based on the races skated so far this season and I'm not really taking the draw into account. I think Żurek and De Boo are incredibly close when you look at the season overall and it was hard to pick between those two, but I think Żurek has shown in Inzell and at the European Championships that he is in great form which is why I put him in second.

Let's go with a prediction for tomorrow's 1.000m. Stolz is of course the favorite, but behind him I think 3 guys that could beat him. I put Zurek in second based on his recent form. De Boo has a higher peak level, but will be impacted by being in the same pair as Stolz. Wennemars has a lower peak level than the top 3 in my prediction, but is very consistent and the raining World Champion. Jordan Stolz Damian Żurek Jenning de Boo Joep Wennemars Cooper McLeod Marten Liiv Lian Ziwen Finn Sonnekalb Kjeld Nuis Conor McDermott-Mostowy Ning Zhongyan Laurent Dubreuil Piotr Michalski Taiyo Nonomura Marek Kania Hendrik Dombek Mathias Vosté Kazuya Yamada Bjørn Magnussen Gabriel Odor Moritz Klein Anders Johnson Wataru Morishige David La Rue Daniele di Stefano Min-Seok Kim Koo Kyung-Min Francesco Betti Daniel Milagros

@brunamoura (and @heywoodu?) featured in a video of our national broadcaster NOS speaking fluent Dutch! Congrats on your Olympic debut, amazing to see those emotions. https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGdmwTmvD/