By Sakura Murakami
BEIJING (Reuters) – The Dutch will have all eyes on national darling Irene Schouten when she zooms around the National Speed Skating Oval at the Beijing 2022 Olympics with her sights set on gold.
Competitions for the speed skating events at the Winter Games open on Saturday with the women’s 3000 metres individual discipline and the Dutch will be hoping to emulate the clean sweep they managed at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.
Their hopes are pegged on Schouten, who has been unbeatable this year, winning every World Cup event she has contested.
“One night of sleep before I give it all. Let the Games begin!” she posted on her Instagram account on Friday.
Shouten chose not to take part in the most recent World Cup event in Calgary to attend the Netherlands’ qualifying events, pushing her down the rankings but securing her spot in the team.
“It’s going well on the ice so far. I am mainly concerned with myself. I want to run a good race. With that comes the result,” Shouten told Dutch media this week.
She will be up against Italian Francesca Lollobrigida, who won the Calgary event Schouten missed with a personal best of three minutes 54.44 seconds.
Other Dutch team members will also be eyeing the top prize, including Carlijn Achtereekte, seeking to repeat her gold medal from Pyeonchang, and Antoinette de Jong, who won bronze.
Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic is also in the mix. She holds the world record at 3:52.02 from 2019 in Salt Lake City and won gold in the 3000m at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
(Reporting by Sakura Murakami; Editing by Ken Ferris)
