Paul was cheering Leerdam on from the stands as she competed in the women’s 500-meter speedskating event.
MILAN, Metropolitan City of Milan — YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul cheered his fiancée on as she clinched a second medal at the Winter Olympics.
Jutta Leerdam of the Netherlands was among two Dutch women on the podium in Sunday’s speedskating event. Leerdam had an early lead and was edged out by teammate Femke Kok, who set a new Olympic record with her gold medal win.
Kok prevented Leerdam from becoming just the third female speedskater to win the 500 and 1,000 at the same Olympics.
The 27-year-old Dutch speedskater surged to the top of the podium in the 1000 meters last week, setting an Olympic record by crossing the finish line in 1 minute, 12.31 seconds. Kok was just behind her at 1:12.59
Leerdam collected a silver in the 1,000 four years ago at the Beijing Games and owns a pair of world titles at that distance. She also won three of the four World Cup 1,000-meter races she entered this season.
Her trophy collection includes 12 world championship medals, with six golds. Two of those titles arrived in the 1,000 in 2020 and 2023.
Separately, Leerdam and Paul draw big crowds to their social media sites — her Instagram page has about 6 million followers; his has more than 28 million.
Leerdam and Paul posted news about their engagement on Instagram in March.
Paul is not shy about offering his opinions on all manner of matters, and he has been critical on social media in recent days about American Olympians expressing their opinions about what is going on back in their country at the moment. He also sent a series of posts to X about Puerto Rico music star Bad Bunny’s appearance at the Super Bowl halftime show, including: “Turn off this halftime. A fake American performing who publicly hates America. I cannot support that.”
That drew a rebuke on social media from his brother, Logan, who wrote: “I love my brother but I don’t agree with this. Puerto Ricans are Americans & I’m happy they were given the opportunity to showcase the talent that comes from the island.”
Later, Jake Paul posted again to say that he lives in Puerto Rico and that he agreed with Bad Bunny’s sentiment that “love is more powerful than hate.” But he added that he thinks voicing criticism of the U.S. is “being a fake citizen.”
Earlier at these Olympics, Paul sat with U.S. Vice President JD Vance at a women’s hockey game that the United States won 5-0 against Finland.
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