After becoming the first athlete ever to win an individual gold medal at five Olympic Games, Ireen Wüst, of The Netherlands’, is reported to have said “Age is just a number”. She might be only 35 but the speedskater who won the 1,500 metres has surely earned the right.
Many won’t have heard her name before but it is worth mentioning that her win at Beijing puts her ahead of ‘household names’ Michael Phelps and Carl Lewis.
Wüst, a ‘notable LGBTQ Olympian‘, was just 19 when she won her first gold, at Turin in 2006.
She set a new Olympic record of 1:53.28 in the nail-bitingly close 1500m race in Beijing, just edging out Japan’s Miho Takagi, who finished in 1:53.72.
“There’s something magical that gets to me when it comes down to the Games,” Wüst said. (She has got that right.)
The most decorated Dutch Olympian, she apparently has plans to retire after Beijing but not because she is too old. I’m not thinking like, ‘I’m 35, I’m too old,’ hell no,” she said.
[Still looking for a link to the video]