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After holding the world record, Kjeld Nuis won the Olympic record and above all a gold medal in the 1500m distance in long track speed skating in Beijing.
The Dutchman took to the track after the excellent time of his compatriot Thomas Krol who at that time smashed the previous Olympic mark which belonged to the American Derek Parra with a time of 1:43.95.
Krol went the distance with a time of 1:43.55 which put pressure on Nuis. The latter spun on the ice ring and he offered himself the first place with a time of 1:43.21 which was 34 hundredths faster than Krol. Nuis’ world record was set in 2019 in Salt Lake City with a smashing time of 1:40.17.
He is only the fourth skater in history to win the 1500m title twice in a row, after Finn Clas Thunberg (1924, 1928), Soviet Yevgeny Grishin (1956, 1960) and Norwegian Johann Olav Koss (1992). , 1994). In 2018, Nuis was crowned in the 1500 and 1000 meters.
21-year-old Canadian Connor Howe was in the last wave of skaters and although the Dutch’s times were quickly out of reach for him, he approached the podium missing the third step by only 62 hundredths with his time of 1:44.86. It was the Korean Minseok Kim who won the bronze medal.
The other two Canadians in the running for this 1500m, Tyson Langelaar and Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu respectively finished in 22and and 23and position. Gélinas-Beaulieu crossed the finish line in 1:48.00.
