WINTER OLYMPICS : Women’s 5,000-Meter Speed Skating : Van Gennip Gets Her Third Gold Medal

The Dutch were out in force at the speed skating oval again Sunday night with songs, flags, chants and a big banner reading, “Yvonne 2, GDR 0.”

They came to cheer Yvonne van Gennip, the most unexpected sensation of the XV Winter Olympics, who gave them another world record and her third gold medal of these Olympics to shout about.

By winning the first 5,000-meter women’s Olympic event ever, the 23-year-old completed a sweep of everything she entered and a devastating thrashing of the favored East Germans in all long-distance women’s events.

The Dutch partisans were prepared. Van Gennip had barely crossed the line to win, when the banner was updated with a bright red numeral: “Yvonne 3, GDR 0.”

For the third straight time against Van Gennip, the East Germans, who had also taken a back seat in the 1,500 and 3,000 meters, had to be satisfied with silver and bronze. Andrea Ehrig took second place in 7 minutes 17.12 seconds and Gabi Zange third in 7:21.61.

The winner’s remarkable time of 7:14.13 clipped more than six seconds off the world mark, 7:20.36, which she herself set in Heerenveen, Netherlands last year.

But even though Van Gennip was a world record-holder coming in, her successes here were anything but anticipated. She had an operation in December after a tight skate lace cut into her right foot and the injury became infected.

She briefly considered washing out the season altogether and was fit to compete in only three events before the Olympics began.

She came here, she said Sunday night, hoping for a bronze medal or two, and suddenly found herself rested and in the best condition of her life. “When you win, you get stronger,” she said.

Her performance puts her in a league with Finnish ski jumper Matti Nykanen, the only other winner of three golds here.

“I heard everything going on,” she said, from the track announcer’s call of her times to the robust cheers of her countrymen. “Normally I don’t think. But this time I was thinking and going fast, and it was very strange.”

The race itself was a challenge. Van Gennip was in the fifth pair, and Ehrig already had bettered the world mark by 3.2 seconds before the Dutch woman competed.

But Van Gennip said she wasn’t worried. “I was glad after I saw Andrea’s time. I thought I could beat it.”

Van Gennip got off to a fast start, turning the first 200 meters in 20.21 seconds, fastest of the night. It was a change in strategy, she said, because normally she starts slowly.

She fell behind Ehrig’s world-record pace only once after that, and quickly made up the time. With three laps to go, she was a full two seconds ahead of the pace and had a three-second edge as the bell for the final lap was rung.

It was then that she broke out her dazzling smile: “I knew then that I could have three gold medals.”