Xandra Velzeboer Sets a World Record on the Way to Olympic Gold

Milan-Cortina saw nine Olympic records fall in speed skating — but only one genuine world record, and it was hers.

By Miles Ashworth · 13 Feb 2026 · 1 min read · United Kingdom edition

Xandra Velzeboer, Netherlands Olympic team. Photo: Alex Sirac, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).

Dutch short-track speed skater Xandra Velzeboer clocked 41.399 in the semi-final of the women's 500m at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, a genuine world record — not just an Olympic one. She went on to win gold in the final at 41.609.

The distinction matters: nine Olympic records fell across speed skating and short track at these Games, four of them set by Dutch athletes, but an Olympic record only means the fastest time ever recorded at an Olympics — it doesn't have to beat the outright global best. Velzeboer's semi-final run did both at once.

It capped a strong Games for Dutch short track specifically — a Dutch quartet also set an Olympic record in the mixed/team event days earlier — continuing the Netherlands' long dominance in the sport.

Setting the outright world record in a semi-final, before the medal was even secured, is its own kind of statement: the record wasn't the goal, gold was, and it arrived as a byproduct of simply skating as fast as she could.