Listen to this article
Estimated 3 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
Follow Winter Olympic SportsPersonalize Your Feed
Fresh off off a second straight Olympic gold medal in women’s team pursuit, Valérie Maltais of La Baie, Que., returned to the speed skating podium on Friday, picking up her third medal in Milan and second bronze.
Maltais delivered a time of one minute 54.40 seconds in the women’s 1,500 metres to keep retiring American Brittany Bowe off the Olympic podium in the event throughout her 16-year career. The 37-year-old was fourth in 1:54.70.
It was Maltais’s fourth time racing the 1,500 at the Winter Games. Before Saturday, her best finish was 12 years ago in Sochi, Russia.
Maltais collected bronze in the women’s 3,000 last Saturday.
Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong of the Netherlands won gold in 1:54.09 and Norway’s Ragne Wiklund went 1:54.15 for her second silver and third medal at these Games.
Valérie Maltais of La Baie, Que, claimed the 1,500-metre speed skating bronze medal on Friday, to go along with her gold medal in team pursuit and 3,000m bronze medal.
The Dutch have won this race at five consecutive Olympics, dating to 2010 in Vancouver.
Miho Takagi of Japan, who has held the world record of 1:49.83 since 2019, was sixth in 1:54.865.
She entered the competition having claimed bronze three times in Milan in the 500, 1,000 and team pursuit.
The door opened for her to claim her first Olympic 1,500 crowd when Joy Beune of the Netherlands came up short at trials and did not qualify for the distance at these Games.
Takagi, 31, had three podiums in five 1,500 races on this year’s World Cup circuit on the way to her fifth straight season title.
Bronze medals in the 3,000-metre and the 1500-metre races, along with gold in the team pursuit gives Valérie Maltais of La Baie, Que, three Olympic medals at Milano Cortina 2026.
Ottawa’s Ivanie Blondin was eighth of 29 skaters in 1:54.93 on Saturday. The 35-year-old was also eighth at last year’s world championships and eighth in the World Cup standings this season.
In December, Blondin collected bronze at a World Cup event in the Netherlands, her first medal in the 1,500 since 2020.
Béatrice Lamarche, from Quebec City, placed 17th (1:57.65) coming off a seventh-place finish in the women’s 500 on Sunday.
The 27-year-old Olympic rookie’s fifth-place result in the 1,000 on Feb. 9 was Canada’s best in the distance since the 2010 Vancouver Games, where Christine Nesbitt won gold and Kristina Groves was fourth.
