Kok increases the Netherlands' count with record-breaking performance

Gold medalist Femke Kok of the Netherlands celebrates after the women's 500m during the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games at Milano Speed Skating Stadium. Amber Searls-Imagn Images

Dutch dominance: Femke Kok increases the Netherlands' speed skating medal count with record-breaking Olympic performance

By Clark Dalton | Last updated Feb 15, 2026 6:54 PM ET

The Netherlands is known for its windmills, tulip fields and canals. After the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics, let's add speed skating to that list.

At the women's 500 meters on Sunday, Dutchwoman Femke Kok earned another gold medal for the speed skating-obsessed nation.

Femke Kok set an Olympic record in the 500M

Kok set an Olympic record in her heat against American Erin Jackson, finishing in 36.49 seconds. Jackson, meanwhile, posted a 37.32.

That time wasn't good enough for Jackson, the 2022 gold medalist in the 500M at the Beijing Games, to repeat as the Olympic champion. She finished fifth.

Japanese skater Miho Takagi took the bronze medal (37.27), while Kok's teammate, Jutta Leerdam, earned the silver (37.15). That was a reversal of the 1000M, where Kok finished in second behind Leerdam.

Femke Kok breaks the OLYMPIC RECORD in the women’s 500m and claims GOLD for the Netherlands. pic.twitter.com/tfJs1asNaD
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) February 15, 2026

"I really wanted to prove that I could do it," Kok said after the race (h/t Howard Fendrich of the Associated Press). "I knew for myself the only thing that mattered was gold."

How many medals has the Netherlands won in speed skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics?

The Netherlands has now won eight medals (including two golds) at the Milan Cortina Olympics, the most of any nation. The country could increase that total before the end of the Games on Feb. 22. Five more speed skating events are scheduled, starting with the men's and women's team pursuits on Tuesday.

The Americans, meanwhile, have won just two medals thus far. Both of them were golds for 21-year-old phenom Jordan Stolz, who's aiming to become the first athlete to win four golds in a Winter Olympics since former American speed skater Eric Heiden at Lake Placid in 1980.

That's even more impressive when considering the population sizes of both countries. The Netherlands' approximate population is 18.4 million. The estimate for the United States is roughly 348.4 million.

"We are a really small country," Kok said, per Time's Sean Gregory. "But we can do speed skating."

Yes, the Netherlands can do speed skating. It's easy to argue that it does it better than any country after the 2026 Games.

Clark Dalton

Dalton is a 2022 journalism graduate of the University of Texas at Austin. He gained experience in sports media over the past seven years — from live broadcasting and creating short films to podcasting and producing. In college, he wrote for The Daily Texan. He loves sports and enjoys hiking, kayaking and camping.

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