Johan de Wit lets Miho Takagi fly: ‘We don’t have to say anything’ | Olympics

If anyone lives on a roller coaster of emotions during the Winter Games, it’s De Wit. A logical quarantine followed after a corona infection, but after a series of negative tests, he still has to live with incomprehensible limitations. It is important that he can be back on the ice rink to coach the Japanese and the apple of this team is 27-year-old Takagi. She’s always good, but she’s never won Olympic gold in an individual track. Until Thursday, when she took gold after a fabulous race in the 1000 meters. This after things had gone completely wrong for Tagaki during the team pursuit two days earlier when her sister Nana crashed in the last corner. “Miho has an enormous sense of responsibility and immediately comforted those girls,” says De Wit.

For the 1000 meters, De Wit already had a lot of confidence in a good outcome. “I thought: it must be weird if she doesn’t win this one. But I also thought: that Jutta Leerdam can skate terribly hard, as long as he acts a little normally. But after her finish I knew that Miho could be faster. I’ve been working with her for seven years and sometimes we don’t have to say anything to understand each other.”

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De Wit acknowledges that he has never had such a special bond with a rider. “I have an incredible amount of respect for her because she is very special, but also very normal and attentive at the same time.”