After capturing a gold medal in her first event at the Milano Cortina Olympics, Dutch speed skater Jutta Leerdam entered Sunday’s women’s speed skating 500m race looking to capture her second.
However, this time, her teammate, Femke Kok of Team Netherlands, set an Olympic record to finish first and win gold. Leerdam was right there with her, crossing the finish line in second place and claiming a silver medal for her second medal of the two events she would compete in.
While Leerdam didn’t win gold, capturing another medal was still a thrilling moment, as her fiancé, Jake Paul, was among the spectators cheering her on and celebrating the finish. Several hours after the race concluded, Leerdam shared a surprising update with fans on social media.
Read more: Jake Paul Reacts to Jutta Leerdam Missing Gold in Olympic Speed Skating
Taking to her Instagram Story, Leerdam shared the IG post below, which celebrates her silver medal win on Sunday. However, she included a message on her IG Story slide, admitting she wasn’t 100 percent ahead of the race.
“What a day, I woke up sick yesterday. I don’t know how I pulled this off but glad I did,” she wrote, admitting to the significant challenge she faced ahead of winning her second medal.
In Sunday’s 500m race, Leerdam achieved a second-place time of 37.15 just ahead of bronze medalist Miho Takagi of Japan, who recorded a 37.27 time. Kok set the new Olympic record with her first-place time of 36.49 in the race.
Last week, Leerdam set an Olympic record, finishing with a time of 1:12.31 to claim the gold medal in the women’s 1000m speed skating event.
Her teammate, Femke Kok, finished second in that race’s results to win the silver, while Takagi won bronze there as well.
Along with her other Instagram updates, Leerdam shared a fun video of her and fiancé Jake Paul celebrating the joyous occasion of her winning two medals in Milano Cortina, Italy. The couple cozies up in the back of a fancy car with stars on the ceiling.
As upbeat music plays, Leerdam and Paul kiss before she shows off her two medals, and the couple dances around in their seats to the music.
Paul and Leerdam have been together since April 2023, when they made their relationship Instagram official. Paul proposed to Leerdam in March 2025, and they’ve remained engaged since then.
Sunday’s race was the final one of the 2026 Winter Olympics for Leerdam. Team Netherlands is currently behind the United States and tied for fourth place in the medal count with Sweden, with each country at 11 medals.
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