Twenty-five-year-old Dutchwoman Femke Kok won the 500-meter speed skating race on Sunday, breaking the Olympic record by almost half a second, but she said in the end that she had a hard time starting in that discipline.
She was in the final pair of the race, along with previous Olympic winner Erin Jackson, and was set to surpass compatriot Juta Lirdam, who had clocked a solid time of 37,15 seconds.
"I was shaking so much before the start, that's all I could think about, how to compose myself and stay calm," said Kok, alluding to the speed skating rule that requires competitors to be absolutely still before the gunshot that signals the start of the race.
Femke has, as she says, a rich history of problems with pre-competition jitters: "Before my first victory at the school marathon, my parents wanted to pull me from the start, I was so scared," the new Olympic champion recalled.
Her victory in the 500 meters is the first Olympic gold medal for a Dutch woman at that distance, and her time of 36,49 seconds is also a new world record at sea level.
The absolute world record of 36,09 seconds is also held by Kok, and it was achieved last year at high altitude, in Salt Lake City.
Femke praised her main competitor Juta Lirdam, with whom she competes at the shortest distances with divided success: Lirdam wins at 1.000, Kok at 500 meters.
"The two of us practically pushed each other to the highest level possible, and we have a lot of respect for each other," Kok said, explaining the tight podium hugs with Lirdam, which had not been so warm and frequent before.
"For me, this silver is absolutely the highest I could have achieved. Femke is super fast at 500 meters, she always goes under 37 seconds, I knew she would be faster than me," said Juta, recalling that Kok has not lost any of her last 23 500-meter races, over the past two years.
In an interview for the ISU website, Femke described her winning performance at the Olympics in detail: "Erin had a great start, she was ahead of me and I knew I had to correct that immediately. On the straight part of the track I started to catch up with her, and I entered the curve before the finish almost level with her, so I thought 'I must be really fast'."
"However, I had previously trained with the Dutch men's national team, I was entering the corners right behind Jennings de Boe and I wasn't afraid of going too fast," Kok told reporters.
In her first meeting with her parents, immediately after her victory, Femke was even more direct in describing the race: "This was...unbelievable," said the new Olympic champion, ignoring the cameras and microphones.
Bonus video:
