The second gold for Irene Schouten at the Olympics has arrived! In the 5,000 meters, the 29-year-old skater from Hoogkarspel rode to victory in the final stage. Schouten clocked a time of 6 minutes, 43 seconds and 51 hundredths, a new Olympic, Dutch and personal record.
In the last stage of the 5,000 meters in Beijing, Schouten raced against Francesca Lollobrigida. During her winning stage in the 3,000 meters, the Italian was also her opponent. Schouten drove very concentrated and stayed ahead of Martina Sáblíková and Isabelle Weidemann.
With that, another North Holland woman is dethroned as title holder in the 5,000 meters. Esmee Visser from Beinsdorp skated to victory in 2018 in Pyeongchang (South Korea), but was not present in Beijing. Visser did not qualify for the Games at the OKT.
The other Dutch participant Sanne in ‘t Hof was seventh and crossed the finish line just under seven minutes in 6.59.78.
Schouten will play two more times at the Olympic Games. The West Frisian still skates the mass start and takes action on the team pursuit.