Van der Poel wins 2nd Olympic gold, sets 10,000-meter world record

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Nils van der Poel spoke his mind, then got back to racing.

Turns out, it was just him against the clock.

The Swedish speedskater broke his own world record and captured his second gold medal of the Beijing Olympics with a dominant victory in the men’s 10,000-meter Friday.

Van der Poel added to his victory in the 5,000, which was a much closer affair.

The longest race on the Olympic program was a blowout.

"We wanted to have a good set-up to break the world record, but we didn't want to Hail Mary it too much," said van der Poel, who had 12:35 as his goal. "I felt like that was reaching for the full capacity but not stretching it too much."

Nils van der Poel of Sweden, poses during a venue ceremony after winning the gold medal and breaking his own world record in the men's speedskating 10,000-meter race at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Friday, Feb. 11, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

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He underestimated what he had in those powerful legs.

"With eight laps to go I felt like, ‘OK, I’ve got the gold within control," van der Poel said. "Now I just need to not (mess) it up."

He almost did, stumbling a bit with about 2 1/2 laps remaining. But van der Poel managed to stay on his feet, swung both arms to build extra speed and breezed across the line with plenty of time to spare in 12 minutes, 30.74 seconds.

The Swede easily broke the world mark of 12:32.95 that he set in February 2021 and was more than 9 seconds ahead of the Olympic record set four years ago by reigning champion Ted-Jan Bloemen of Canada.

The silver medal went to Patrick Roest of the