Two Dutch short track athletes won their first individual events at the 2026 Olympic Games. Jens van 't Wout won gold in the 1000 meters and Xandra Welzeboer won gold in the 500 meters.
At the end of the sixth day of competition, the finals of two short track races took place – at a distance of 500 meters among women and 1000 meters among men.
Suspilne Sport is the exclusive broadcaster of the 2026 Olympics. Live broadcast of the competitions is on the Suspilne Sport platforms and local Suspilne channels.
The first short track competition was held among women in the 500 meters, in which 32 participants competed. In particular, Ukrainian Elizaveta Sidorko took part, setting a Ukrainian record with a time of 43.337 seconds, but did not advance to the next round.
Ten short track racers qualified for the final, competing in two heats of five. The winner had to set the fastest time.
In the end, only representatives of one of the two races ended up on the podium. The “gold” went to the Dutchwoman Xandra Welzeboor, who covered the distance in 41.609 seconds.
Olympics-2026. Short track 500 m (women's final)
- Xandra Welzeboor (Netherlands) — 41.609 seconds
- Arianna Fontana (Italy) — 42.294
- Courtney Saro (Canada) — 42.427
Instead, the men competed in the 1000 meters, where 32 athletes also participated. Ten short track athletes competed for medals in the final, and only athletes from one of the two races won awards.
The victory went to Dutchman Jens Van't Wout, who covered the distance in 1:24.537 minutes. The runner-up was Chinese Long Sung, who crossed the finish line with a margin of 0.028 seconds.
Olympics-2026. Short track 1000 m (men's final)
- Jens Van't Vout (Netherlands) — 1:24.537 minutes
- Lun Song (China) — 1:24.565
- Lim Jeong-un (Republic of Korea) — 1:24.611
The podium of the men's 1000m short track speed skating at the Olympic Games. With the gold medal goes to Jens Van 't Wout of the Netherlands. REUTERS/Yara Nardi
What do the Netherlands' victories mean?
- Thanks to two gold medals in individual competitions, the team repeated the historic national record for awards in short track at the Olympic Games.
- Until now, the Netherlands has won a maximum of two “gold” medals at one Games – this happened in 2022. However, with the victories of Welzeburr and Wout, the Netherlands repeated their Olympic record – and did it in just one competitive evening.
- Two gold medals allowed the Netherlands to reach ninth place in the medal standings of the 2026 Olympics. Jutta Leerdam also won the speed skating event (1000 m).