Olympic champion Lerdam thanked the ex-coach of the Russian national team from Poltava

Konstantin Poltavets, the former head coach of the Russian national speed skating team, is an amazing specialist. This was announced on February 10 by Olympic champion from the Netherlands Jutta Leerdam on the air of the Okko cinema.

"Konstantin Poltavets is an amazing coach. I'm happy to be working with him. I'm looking forward to hugging him. We achieved this together," the athlete said on the air.

Poltavets worked for the Russian national team from 2010 to 2020. After that, due to personal circumstances, he was forced to cancel the contract extension. After that, he started coaching the Dutch team.

Olympic Games Program-2026: schedule by day and which Russian athletes are allowed

The competition will be held in February 2026 in Italy.

On February 9, Leerdam won the gold medal of the Games in the 1000 m distance. Lerdam covered the distance in 1 min. 12.31 s. Her compatriot Femke Kok won the silver medal, losing 0.28 s to the winner. The representative of Japan, Miho Takagi, came in third place with a lag of 1.64 seconds.

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