Hanne Desmet had made it very exciting in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, but did shine in an Olympic final for the 2nd time in one week. With the slowest time and against 4 toppers, our compatriot started as an underdog.
That didn’t stop Desmet. She started in the worst position on the grid, but made a frantic attempt to advance to the top 3. On the outside, however, she wasted too much energy and had to drop back to 5th and last place.
There, the vice world champion kept a close eye on everything to take advantage of a mistake by her rivals. And that opportunity also came: one lap before the end, the Italian Ariannia Fontana and the American Kristen Santos crashed.
Desmet stayed straight and skated to a historic bronze medal at her first Winter Games. Her Dutch training buddy and world champion Suzanne Schulting grabbed the gold medal. The joy can therefore not end with the Belgian-Dutch duo. The silver went to the Korean Minjeong Choi.
Hanne Desmet not only gives Belgium its first Olympic medal in short track, she is also the very first Belgian woman to win an individual medal at the Winter Olympics.
