Ireen Wust Wins 1500m Speedskating Gold Medal at 2018 Winter Olympics

Speed-skating legend Ireen Wust added yet another gold medal to her resume on Monday, winning the women's 1,500 meters event at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

The 31-year-old finished in a time of 1 minute, 54.35 seconds, just beating out Japan's Miho Takagi. In the process, she became the all-time Olympic medal leader in her sport, breaking a tie with Germany's Claudia Pechstein, who earned nine medals during her great career.

Per sportswriter Jose Been, she set even more records: 

Gracenote Olympic took note of another record she set:

Compatriot Marrit Leenstra completed the podium, giving the Netherlands yet another great result in a speed-skating event. The nation swept the podium during the 3,000 meters on Saturday, with Wust grabbing silver.

Here's what the result means for the overall medal tally:

Nao Kodaira set the first solid time of the 1,500-meter final, opening up at a blistering pace and settling for a final time of 1:56.11. Fans were waiting for the latter pairings, however, which contained most of the favourites.

Team USA's Brittany Bowe was an exception, as she skated her heat against Poland's Natalia Czerwonka midway through the final. Bowe finished in a time of 1:55.54, setting the mark before the ice was resurfaced.

Vadim Ghirda/Associated Press

Wust started in Heat 11, and after a false start, she fell behind the pace. By the first split, she was four-tenths of a second down, but she sped up toward the end of her run and finished with a superb 1:54.35 time.

Leenstra was up next, and she opened with an excellent split of 25.38 seconds. She held the lead entering the final lap, but fell off the pace and came up short.

Lotte van Beek completed the trio of Dutch contenders in the next heat, taking on Japan's Ayaka Kikuchi. Van Beek finished behind Leenstra, guaranteeing Wust the bronze and the Olympic speed-skating medal record.

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In the final heat, Heather Bergsma of the United States and Takagi were both expected to set a good pace early, and after another false start, both got under way quickly. Takagi appeared to be on her way to the gold entering her final lap, but she couldn't keep up the blistering pace, losing the lead in the final 200 meters.