Netherlands sets Winter Olympics gold record as Bergsma and Groenewoud win in Milan

The Netherlands won another two gold medals on Saturday afternoon at the Winter Olympics in Milan. First, Jorrit Bergsma won gold in the mass start before Marijke Groenewoud triumphed in the sprint. It brings the total of gold medals to 10 for the Netherlands, a new record.

Bergsma, 40, launched an extended attack alongside Denmark’s Viktor Hald Thorup, kept the chasing pack at bay, and pulled clear of his breakaway companion with three laps left.

The medal is Bergsma’s second of these Games, having already taken bronze in the 10,000 meters. The gold is the second of his career, following his 10,000-meter title at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. In total, he now has five Olympic medals, including a silver in the 10,000 meters and a bronze in the 5,000 meters.

Bergsma made his move on the third lap alongside Thorup, while the peloton held back and allowed them to build an advantage. Van de Bunt disrupted the rhythm of the chasing group, which featured fast finishers like defending champion Swings, American contender Stolz, and Italy’s world champion Giovannini. In the fight for third place, Giovannini won the sprint for bronze, beating Stolz to the line behind the leading duo.

Groenewoud stayed ahead of Ivan Blondin from Canada and Mia Manganello from the U.S. for her victory. The medal marks Groenewoud’s second medal of the Games and her first gold. Earlier, she earned silver in the team pursuit together with Joy Beune and Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong.

Valerie Maltais fell early in the race, but the Canadian managed to return to the peloton with ten laps remaining. Sandrine Tas launched an attack that was answered by Bente Kerkhoff, and when the Belgian accelerated again, Francesca Lollobrigida responded. Kerkhoff then kept the pace high in the peloton heading toward the final sprint.

Groenewoud made her decisive move on the final lap, accelerating clear of the field. Blondin and Manganello could not bridge the gap and were left to battle it out for silver and bronze.

With a total of ten gold, seven silver, and three bronze medals, the Netherlands wrapped up the Milan Games on a high note, with a third place on the list of countries winning medals, behind Norway and the U.S. The four-man bobsleigh team is still set to race on Sunday, yet its 13th-place standing midway through the event leaves it well outside the medal positions.

Groenewoud’s day became even more memorable when she became engaged after the race. Groenewoud admitted she was overwhelmed after the race. “As I walked off the ice, I kept thinking: what’s happening here?” she said in disbelief inside the corridors of the Milano Speed Skating Stadium. “I’m totally taken aback. The gold is more special to me, of course, but even the silver ring is something beautiful.”

Groenewoud’s campaign in Milan had fallen short of expectations, with 10th place in the 1500 meters, 8th in the 3000 meters, and 7th in the 5000 meters. She made clear that those results were not what she had aimed for. “I didn’t travel here for those finishes. I expected more,” she said, stressing that the mass start bears little resemblance to the individual events. “In the individual races, everything has to be flawless from the first lap to the last. The mass start is far more tactical. It’s a different game altogether, and that gave me confidence going in.”

The gold medal did not make Marijke Groenewoud, who said “yes” to the marriage proposal, immediately forget her disappointing results in the other events in Milan. “This doesn’t make everything right, but it does make a lot of things better,” she said.