But the headlines were not focused on the athlete — they were dominated by a male social media influencer crying over her accomplishments.
Dutch speed skater Jutta Leerdam made history earlier this week when she was crowned the women’s 1000m speed skating champion at the Winter Olympics.
Leerdam and Kok completed the Netherlands’ first one-two podium finish in the event at the Olympics.
But much of that success was overshadowed by broadcasts and headlines dominated by Leerdam’s fiance, Jake Paul, who sat in the crowd weeping after watching his partner’s success.
While that support is important, it should not be the dominating factor in a history-defining moment.
Most of the stories referred to Leerdam as "Jake Paul’s fiancee" — and questioned when the couple would be having children — instead of her rightful title as Olympic record holder and champion.
Are women really that badly diminished by their marital status that we cannot put their achievements first?
I am aware that The Revolution is feeding into the narrative talking about it again, but must we value a YouTuber-turned-boxer’s reaction more than a double Olympic record?
Leerdam’s success is deeper than most realise.
She was crowned the junior world champion in 2017 and won the junior world cup in the 1000m and 1500m events.
Since turning professional, she was the world single distance champion in the 1000m in 2020 and 2023, won silver at the Beijing Olympics and was named world single distance champion in 2019 and 2020 and the world sprint champion in 2022 in the team sprint.
Off the ice, Leerdam has garnered a large social media following but has used it to her advantage, speaking about menstrual health and the pressures of weight management during her teenage years — conversations that former skaters and coaches say helped normalise subjects long treated as taboo in elite sport.
Women make up a record 47% of athletes at Milano Cortina.
Our own Zoi Sadowski-Synnott snatched silver in the snowboarding big air earlier this week and freeskier Alice Robinson gets under way tonight in the super G.
Linn Svahn, Jonna Sundling and Maja Dahlqvist made a clean sweep of the women’s cross-country sprint podium, the first time Sweden has had three athletes on the podium in one event.
Let’s talk about their achievements — not who’s sitting in the stands.
• A recent media and gender report on the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup revealed a couple of interesting snippets.
Across the past four World Cups — women and men — the Otago Daily Times was the only stand-alone media organisation to provide more coverage to the 2025 edition (31%) than the three previous tournaments.
During the tournament, 53% of the ODT’s overall sports coverage focused on women, up from 35% during the 2022 event and is the biggest increase from any media organisation in the study.
Still work to do, but we’re on the right track.
