Brittany Bowe falls short of medal in strongest speedskating race

MILAN — Brittany Bowe will not leave her last 1,000-meter race on Olympic ice with a medal. She’ll take something more valuable.

“What makes this more special than anything is having my mom, my dad, my sister, up there in the stands cheering for me,” said Bowe, who finished fourth in her strongest speedskating event Monday at Milano Speed Skating Stadium. “Win, lose, draw, they’re going to be cheering for me just as much, and to have them out there after not having anyone in Beijing, really puts everything into perspective that it’s so much bigger than just that one moment out there.”

A sixth-tenth-of a second difference bumped Bowe off the podium after Japan’s Miho Takagi finished with a time of 1 minute 13.95 seconds to claim bronze in the final pair. The 37-year-old Bowe, who has already announced her fourth Olympics will be her last, clocked in at 1:14.55.

The Netherlands’ Jutta Leerdam set an Olympic record to win gold, blazing the oval at 1:12.31. She bested her own teammates’ Olympic record set minutes before to push Femke Kok down to silver.

Jutta Leerdam of the Netherlands celebrates winning the gold medal in the women’s 1,000-meter speedskating race at the Winter Olympics in Milan on Monday.

(Luca Bruno / Associated Press)

Kok clapped with a resigned look on her face after Leerdam’s time flashed on the screen. Black mascara stained Leerdam’s cheeks as she skated around the arena, saluting the legion of Dutch fans that filled the stands.

American Erin Jackson, the 2022 Olympic gold medalist in the 500 meters who is skating through three herniated discs in her lower back, finished sixth. Racing in the 1,000 meters for the first time in her Olympic career, she clapped cordially at the end of the race. Bowe hugged her coaches before disappearing off the ice.

Bowe set the world record for the 1,000 meters in 2019 and is a three-time world champion in the distance. Yet she has not summitted an Olympic podium for it. The closest she got was a bronze medal in 2022. She finished just one-tenth of a second ahead of the Russian Olympic Committee’s Angelina Golikova to earn her first individual Olympic medal.

But the dramatic moment still felt “empty,” Bowe said. In the pandemic-affected Games that left stadiums without fans, she was also without her support system.

This time, while she didn’t leave with a medal, she relaxed at the sight of her family all dressed in “Bowelieve” shirts in the stands.

“Being out here finishing on the other side [of a close finish], I actually can say I felt more joy in that moment,” Bowe said, “because why I do this is so much bigger than just myself.”

Four years after an empty arena in Beijing, Bowe was standing in a sea of orange in Milan. Racing in front of the Dutch fans is her favorite way to race, she said with a smile.

The Dutch fans roared every time one of their countrywomen zoomed by. Even when Kok and Leerdam were warming up, gliding by at a snail’s pace compared to skaters during their race, the crowd cheered, the skating stars in acknowledgement.

American Erin Jackson competes in the women’s 1,000-meter speedskating race at the Winter Olympics in Milan on Monday.

(Luca Bruno / Associated Press)

When Kok crossed the finish line, she raised her fists triumphantly. Her time of 1:12.59 was good enough for the Olympic record, but Leerdam blazed past her only two pairs later.

Bowe and Jackson will still race in Jackson’s specialty of the 500 meters on Feb. 15, but Bowe will first compete in the team pursuit Saturday. Naturally, competing as a group brings the former Florida Atlantic point guard more joy than any individual medal.

“There’s just nothing like it,” said Bowe, who has a bronze medal in team pursuit from 2018. “… Feeling the same pressure, emotion, working through it together is just flat-out fun.”