valerie Maltais believes he has the right mindset for an oval 1,500-meter race. In other words, I get excited about hurting and scraping 3 and 3/4 laps.

Who would doubt the speed skater who won five medals in his fourth Olympic appearance?

Maltais, who just won her second consecutive gold medal in the women’s team pursuit at the Winter Olympics in Milan three days earlier, was aware of the “stacked” field in Friday’s women’s 1,500m final.

• The retiring American Brittany Bowe had 16 years of experience and had won 91 World Cup medals, six world titles (one in 1,500) and four world records (one in 500).
• There was Norway’s Ragne Wiklund, who won three World Cup bronze medals this season and two Olympic medals.
• And Japan’s Miho Takagi is a world record holder who won bronze medals in the 500m, 1000m and team pursuit in Milan.

“I was like, ‘I don’t know, but let’s skate a strong race and see how it goes,'” Maltais told CBC Sports shortly after finishing 10th of 15 in 1 minute, 54.40 seconds at the Milan Speed ​​Skating Stadium, beating the Dutchman Femke Kok from the lead.

Before Takagi competed in the final pair, Maltais was texting with her husband and thought they would finish with a bronze medal or fourth place.

“I knew I skated strong on the last lap, that’s why I won.” [my pairing over Belgian athlete Isabelle van Elst]”My heart just jumped out of my chest,” Maltais said. teeth [my bronze position] Are you planning to have one? I said to my coach, ‘I don’t think it’s going to last.’ ”

“I think I was able to skate powerfully on the big stage.”

Marutai won with a margin of 0.3 to 10 seconds over fourth place Bowe.

“I was waiting with Lagne and I was like, ‘Hey, hey, that’s a surprise.’ I think we had a strong, solid race on the big stage,” Maltais said. Maltais became the first Canadian to win a bronze medal in the 3000m class on February 7th in Milan. “That’s where you need to be [perform]. ”

This will be Martais’ fourth time competing in the 1,500-meter race at the Winter Olympics. Her best finish before Saturday was sixth place in Sochi, Russia, 12 years ago.

She won Canada’s fourth medal in speed skating and tied with Laurent Dubreuil for Italy’s 16th medal overall. bronze medalist in the men’s 500.

Antoinette Lipmade Jong of the Netherlands won her first Olympic gold medal with a time of 1:54.09, while Wiklund won her second silver and third medal of the Games with a time of 1:54.15.

“It’s an incredible feeling. I’m so happy to be standing here,” Rizimade Yong told reporters. “This medal means everything to me. I already had [Olympic] Although there were silver and bronze medals, an Olympic gold medal was still missing. I’m very proud that we were able to do that. It doesn’t get any better than this. This is insane.

Netherlands wins 5th consecutive Olympic 1500m victory

“Doing that at 1,500 meters, which isn’t even my best distance, is crazy. It’s not realistic.”

The Dutchman has won this race five times in a row, the first being in Vancouver in 2010.

Risimade Jong, the 2023 1,500m world champion, was cheered loudly by thousands of her closest friends in the stands. They roared when she was introduced before the Heat. And again when the video board showed that she was ahead of Wiklund. And the most jarring part was when Risimade Jong crossed the line and the number “1” appeared next to her name to indicate she was in the lead.

Rijimade Yong’s total Olympic results include one gold, two silver and three bronze.

Takagi, who holds the world record of 1 minute 49.83 seconds from 2019, was sixth with a time of 1 minute 54.865 seconds.

When Joy Buehne of the Netherlands came up short in the trials and failed to qualify for the event’s distance, the door opened for her to reach her first Olympic audience of 1,500.

Takagi, 31, had three podium finishes in five 1,500 races on this year’s World Cup circuit en route to his fifth consecutive title.

Ottawa’s Ivanie Blondin placed eighth out of 29 on Saturday with a time of 1:54.93. The 35-year-old was eighth at last year’s World Championships and eighth in this season’s World Cup standings.

In December, Blondin won bronze at the World Cup in the Netherlands, her first medal in the 1,500 since 2020.

Beatrice Lamarche of Quebec City, who finished seventh in the women’s 500 meters on Sunday, came in 17th (1:57.65).

27 year old Olympic rookie 5th place result The 1,000 meters on February 9th was the best distance run by a Canadian since the 2010 Vancouver Games, when Christine Nesbitt took gold and Christina Groves took fourth place.