Speed skating · Global
Bergsma and Groenewoud win Olympic mass start titles
The Dutch pair won through an early escape and a decisive final-lap sprint.
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Jorrit Bergsma and Marijke Groenewoud won the Olympic men’s and women’s mass start titles in Milan. Forty-year-old Bergsma became long track speed skating’s oldest Olympic champion after breaking away with Viktor Hald Thorup on the third of sixteen laps.
Bergsma later left Thorup behind to finish alone, with the Danish skater taking silver and Andrea Giovannini winning the bunch sprint for bronze. Thorup’s medal was Denmark’s first at a Winter Olympics since women’s curling silver in 1998.
Groenewoud won the women’s race with a strong final lap ahead of Ivanie Blondin and Mia Manganello. Both silver and bronze medallists described the event as their final Olympic race. Manganello earned her first individual Olympic medal after an earlier team pursuit bronze.
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