OLYMPICS: Speed skating-Heartbroken Wennemars says Games dream was ripped apart after having to skate again

MILAN – Dutch speed skater Joep Wennemars said his Olympic dream was “ripped apart” after a collision with China’s Lian Ziwen forced a re-skate that he believes cost him a medal in the men’s 1,000 meters at the Milano Cortina Games on Wednesday.

Wennemars, the 2025 world champion in the 1,000m and son of former sprint world champion Erben Wennemars, collided with Lian during a lane change in the 11th of 15 pairs, leaving the 23-year-old Dutchman furious. Lian was disqualified, and Wennemars was given the opportunity to skate again.

Skating alone in front of a roaring, orange-clad crowd, his second attempt extended the session by about 15 minutes, forcing other podium contenders to wait for their results. Exhausted from his earlier effort, Wennemars managed only the fifth-fastest time.

“I am devastated. My Olympic dream has been ripped apart. I am heartbroken — this is just horrible,” Wennemars said. “I was just racing my own line and then the Chinese guy blocked my road… I do not know what else to say. I was on my way to win a medal. It is a disgrace that I had to do the re-skate just half an hour later. If it were up to the ISU, they wanted me to do it 20 minutes after the race ended. It is unfair — everybody knows that. I had to do the re-skate without any wind flow and with no opponent to race against. Everybody here believes I would have won a medal.”

American Jordan Stolz won gold in an Olympic-record 1:06.28, finishing 0.50 seconds ahead of Dutchman Jenning de Boo, while China’s Ning Zhongyan took bronze.

“The only way to still get a medal was to do the re-skate; they would not have handed it to me,” Wennemars said. “But in two days’ time nobody will be thinking about this moment, and I will still be without a medal.”

He added that Lian, 27, had apologised.

“But that apology does not help in any way. I was on my way to win bronze — perhaps even silver. The opportunity to win a medal has been taken away from me,” he said. “I do not know what to feel right now. I want to cry, but the tears won’t come. I cannot believe it.”

-Reporting by Pearl Josephine Nazare in Milan; editing by Clare Fallon/Reuters