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The NBC broadcast showed Jake Paul before his fiancee, Jutta Leerdam, raced in the Olympic final of the women's 1000-meter speed skating event.
The famous boxer and influencer Paul was hardly moving. He looked nervous and anxious. Leerdam had won silver at the last Olympics. She wanted gold.
And then Leerdam put together the race of her life. From a slightly behind split early, she burst into top gear and set a new Olympic record of 1:12.31.
Then the broadcast showed Paul again. He had burst into tears.
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Leerdam, too, soon was crying, and she made a heart gesture toward the stands, where Paul and family members were seated.
As a Dutch person it's such a strugge whether to root for our athlete and gf of Jake Paul to win the gold medal or to root against her so that I can see Jake Paul cry. Somehow, I got both. pic.twitter.com/Z649VagKyl
— Geert Wilder (@GeertWilde) February 9, 2026Emotion all around, and for good reason.
Leerdam had spent four years trying to climb one more step on that podium. And on Monday, she got the chance to do so.
It looked a bit uncertain. Her teammate from the Netherlands, Femke Kok, set a new Olympic record just two heats before Leerdam.
If she wanted gold, she had to steal it from her teammate by breaking an Olympic record that had just been set.
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On the first lap split, Leerdam was off the pace. But she's known for her top speed, and she reached a faster pace than anyone else in the field, around 35 miles per hour.
That was enough to catch up, and push past, Kok's record time.
In the end, it was a Dutch 1-2 for gold and silver.
For Leerdam and Paul, she was on the right side of that line, faster than she had ever raced and higher on the Olympic podium than she had ever been.
Certainly something worth shedding some tears for.
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