The Netherlands continued to dominate the speed skating competitions on Monday, with three Dutch skaters sweeping the 500 m sprint event. Heading into Tuesday, the Netherlands, Norway and Canada are on top with seven medals each, while Russia and the United States are just behind with six and five, respectively. Michael Mulder took gold in the 500 m sprint with a time of 69.31 seconds, besting fellow countryman Jan Smeekens, who posted two strong times before a time change gave Mulder the gold medal.
The gap between the two proved to be just one one-hundredth of a second in the end. Ronald Mulder (Michael’s twin brother) took home the bronze in a time of 69.46 seconds. Medals continued to elude American skaters in the 1,500 m short track event, as Canada’s Charles Hamelin won the gold with a time of 2:14.985, edging out silver medalist Tianyu Han of China and Russia’s Victor Ahn, who took home the bronze. American J.R. Celski came in fourth place with a time of 2:15.624. The top five countries who lead with medals are:
Gold Silver Bronze Total
- Canada 3 3 1 7
- Netherlands 3 2 2 7
- Norway 2 1 4 7
- United States 2 0 3 5
- Germany 2 0 0 2
