TeamNL program on Thursday 17 February: Ireen Wüst ends Olympic speed skating career at 1000 meters | Olympics

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* = medal chances for Team NL

Thursday 17 February

• *09.30 am: speed skating, 1000m (f) (Antoinette de Jong, Jutta Leerdam and Ireen Wüst)
• *11 am: figure skating, free freestyle (Lindsay van Zundert)

Wüst ends Olympic skating career

The last 1000 meters of barely 60,000 Olympic meters on the ice will come for Ireen Wüst on Thursday. It will be her twentieth participation in a skating event at the Winter Games, in which she participates for the fifth time in her career in Beijing. Thirteen of the previous nineteen starts resulted in a medal for her, including six golds.

A fourteenth is certainly not out of the question, since Wüst has focused more on the shorter numbers with her current Team Reggeborgh. Moreover, she invariably rises above herself at the Olympics, she already won gold in the 1500 meters last week and this last Olympic race will undoubtedly unleash something extra in her.

In the twelfth of a total of fifteen stages, the most successful Dutch Olympian of all time will compete against the Polish Andzelika Wojcik. Jutta Leerdam skates directly in front of Wüst in the race, with American Kimi Goetz as opponent. Antoinette de Jong is classified in the third stage, against Ekaterina Slojeva from Belarus.

Ireen Wust ends her Olympic skating career on Thursday.

Ⓒ HH/ANP

Jutta Leerdam skates directly in front of Wüst in the race. The number 5 of the 500 meters has the American Kimi Goetz as an opponent. Antoinette de Jong, the third Dutch participant in the 1000 meters, is classified in the third stage. Ekaterina Sloeva from Belarus is her opponent.

Van Zundert can show himself again

The fairy tale of ice princess Lindsay van Zundert is getting more and more beautiful. The 17-year-old figure skater surprised herself on Tuesday after she qualified for the long freestyle that is scheduled for Thursday with an excellent short freestyle (59.24). “Honestly, I didn’t expect to make it to the final. I’m really happy,” she said afterwards.

She is the first figure skater to represent the Netherlands at the largest winter sports event since Dianne de Leeuw in 1976. In Innsbruck, Dianne de Leeuw won a silver medal 45 years ago. The fact that the Netherlands sent a figure skater was due to the sixteenth place that Van Zundert achieved in March last year at the World Championships in Stockholm, with a total score of 174.50 points.

View the full (written out) program of the Dutch below:

* = medal chances for Team NL

Friday February 18

• *09:30 am: speed skating, 1000m (m): Kai Verbij, Thomas Krol, Hein Otterspeer

Saturday 19 February

• 02:30 am: bobsleigh, 4-man heat 1: Ivo de Bruin, Jelen Franjic, Janko Franjic, Stephan Huis in ‘t Veld, Dennis Veenker
• 4:05 a.m.: bobsleigh, 4-man heat 2 14-30: bobsleigh, two-man (f) heat 4
• 08.00 o’clock: speed skating, mass start (m) SF: Jorrit Bergsma, Sven Kramer
• 8.45 am: speed skating, mass start (f) SF: Irene Schouten, Marijke Groenewoud
• *09:30 am: speed skating, mass start (m) F: Jorrit Bergsma, Sven Kramer
• *10.15 am: speed skating, mass start (f) F: Irene Schouten, Marijke Groenewoud

Sunday 20 February

• 02:30 am: bobsleigh, 4-man heat 3: Ivo de Bruin, Jelen Franjic, Janko Franjic, Stephan Huis in ‘t Veld, Dennis Veenker
• *04.20 am: bobsleigh, 4-man heat 4: De Bruin, Franjic, Franjic, Huis in ‘t Veld, Veenker
• 13.00: closing ceremony