Beijing, China, February 17, 2022: Japanese speed skater Miho Takagi recovered from the despair of two days ago to storm to a sensational gold medal and Olympic record at the National Speed Skating Oval on Thursday afternoon.
On Tuesday, Japan’s three-strong women’s pursuit team looked set to retain their gold medal from PyeongChang 2018 when they led Canada in the final going into the last bend.
But then disaster struck when Miho’s older sister, back marker Nana Takagi, slid into the side cushion and the gold medal slipped away.
On Thursday, Japan team captain Miho made up for it by winning gold in the women’s 1,000 metres – her first gold medal at Beijing 2022 after three silver medals in the 500m, 1,500m and team pursuit.
Miho, 27, came home in an Olympic record time of 1 minute, 13.19 seconds. The Netherlands’ Jutta Leerdam won silver in 1:13.83, just 0.64 seconds behind, and world record-holder Brittany Bowe of the United States – in the last pair to skate – came third in 1:14.61, 1.42 seconds down on Takagi.
The new Olympic record eclipsed the previous mark of 1:13.56 set by the Netherlands’ Jorien ter Mors at the PyeongChang Olympics four years ago when Takagi was third.
Takagi was asked how she felt to finally win gold after her three silver medals here.
“I was struggling with my previous races, so I was just like 'yeah’ (laughs). That was how I felt. I knew the rink I was skating in, so I was just focusing on doing the skating I did in the back straight of the 500m, just very strong glides. The last lap was just about skating really well, that was what I was focusing on.
"I remembered what my older sister said to me this morning. She said, 'It’s amazing if you win four silvers', (laughs).”
Her tactics were quite straightforward. "I thought I would just go for it,” she said. “I wasn’t thinking too deeply about what my time would be. For me, it’s the same as a 500m. I was most focused on getting the start right."
Regarding the team pursuit blowout two days earlier, Takagi said: "We all live in the same room, so we would chat and joke around, and that helped me - it’s not like I’ve recovered from it.
"I was just so overwhelmed with what I had to do for the 1,000m that I didn’t actually have much space to give anything else a thought. It was a good thing that all I had to do was focus on what I had to do.”
Photos: ISU Speed Skating
