Suzanne Schulting finished the World Championships in Rotterdam with a broken ankle. The Frisian went down in the final of the 1000 metres and was immediately in a lot of pain. She still tried to join the restart, but could not stand on her ankle. Examination at the hospital revealed a fracture.
For the Dutch team, it was a weekend in which the quarters kept falling to the wrong side. A big contrast with last year, when the Netherlands won gold on all tracks in the women’s event. For Schulting, it was a special weekend after the sabbatical she was forced to take last year. On Saturday, she did not show the best version of herself with elimination in the 1500 and 500 metres. She resolved to go all out in the 1000 metres, described by the protagonist herself as “her distance”. Schulting got through the quarter-finals and semi-finals with playful ease and was on course for gold in the final.
Until the moment with Hanne Desmet. The Belgian was on a collision course in her races all weekend and received a penalty for this too. Schulting ended up with Kristen Santos-Griswold and Gilli Kim in the boarding and immediately felt it was wrong. “I was in a lot of pain right away,” Schulting said from a seat on the edge of the track as the World Cup set was dismantled. “When I got up afterwards and wanted to skate on for that third place – I didn’t realise right away that the race had been blown off – I really felt abnormal pain. When I sat on the boarding I was already thinking: this doesn’t feel very good. But it’s a World Cup final, wanted to go for it anyway and start.”
