Winter Olympics success sees Dutch team bring home record number gold medals

The 2026 Winter Olympics have officially ended and the Dutch team has finished in third position overall, returning home with 20 medals. Team Netherlands won a record 10 gold medals, seven silver and three bronze.

Record number of gold medals for Team NL

Not only did Team NL finish third in the medal standings for the Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, the highest ranking ever for the Netherlands, but the team also walked away with more gold medals than ever before. The 10 gold medals broke records set at the Winter Games in Sochi (2014), PyeongChang (2018) and Beijing (2022), where the Netherlands won eight gold medals.

While the overall medal count didn’t break the 24-medal record set in Sochi, it is still considered the “best Games ever” for the Netherlands. "We had 64 starting events here with our athletes," Dutch Chef de Mission Carl Verheijen told BNR. "Of those, 31 percent won a medal, and 61 percent finished in the top eight. They were wonderful Games."

The team was aiming for 16 to 19 medals in the 2026 Winter Games, but exceeded expectations, winning 20 overall, and a record for gold. Norway finished first with 18 gold medals, followed by the United States with 12. 

Dutch Olympic team dominates in speed skating events

The Netherlands competed in long-track speed skating, short-track speed skating, snowboarding, bobsledding and figure skating, but all the medals won were in speed skating events. Femke Kok (500 metres), Jutta Leerdam (1.000 metres), Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong (1.500 metres), and Jorrit Bergsma and Marijke Groenewoud in the mass start took gold in the long track.

Five medals for short track skating made history, with a win for men’s relay and victories for Xandra Velzeboer (500 and 1.000 metres) and Jens van ‘t Wout (1.000 and 1.500 metres). The Dutch Olympic team also brought home a record number of medals in the 2024 Paris Olympics. 

Director of elite sports for the Dutch Olympic Committee and Sports Federation (NOC*NSF), André Cats, hopes the record wins will “boost” funding. "I don't want to make this a political issue or complain about additional budgets. The medals and achievements achieved here should take precedence," said Cats. 

"But if you look at what we achieved in terms of medals at the Summer Games in Paris and [for Milano Cortina], it is certainly under pressure from a budgetary perspective. That's why I'm very much hoping for support in the coming years, including for the increasingly expensive programs."