Olympic clean and jerk table is a long-running feature that subjectively assesses the inconsistency (or lack thereof) of the game’s biggest stars. Read more from Slate’s 2026 Olympics coverage here.
Nominator: Jutta Riordan
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motherland: Netherlands
because: Winning speed skating gold, setting an Olympic record in the 1,000m, getting engaged to Jake Paul
Why she might be a jerk: Imagine you are Dutch speed skater Jutta Leerdam. As far as idle daydreams go, this is a pretty sweet one. You’re young, blond, conventionally attractive, and one of the top speed skaters in a country completely obsessed with the sport. You are a social media star with 5.43 million followers on Instagram and 2.2 million followers on TikTok. You are currently ranked second in the women’s 1000m World Cup standings and won an Olympic silver medal in the same event at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Then, in your first game at the Cortina Games in Milan, you win a gold medal and at the same time break the Olympic record.
Way to go, you! You have the world at the palm of your hand and can do anything you want in your life. Now imagine what you want to do is get engaged to one of the most annoying men on the planet: social media personality Jake Paul. I think the heart wants what it wants, but when the heart wants the person it once created this Bad rap video, at least there’s reason to wonder if the heart is housed in the body of an asshole.
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For those of you who are lucky enough not to have noticed, Jake Paul (not to be confused with his older brother Logan Paul, who is also very annoying) first became famous in the early to mid-2010s as a social media personality known for making intentionally obnoxious Vines and YouTube videos, as well as for terrorizing his Los Angeles neighbors with “hilarious pranks,” which often involved setting parts of his backyard on fire. Like all artists, he eventually matured and turned his attention from prank videos to professional boxing, initially building his career by arranging matches with various stiffs, seniors, and mixed martial artists. He’s been fighting real boxers lately, with mixed results: While he’s had some wins, he had his jaw broken by Anthony Joshua last November.
Plus, he’s been getting pretty Trumpy lately: He hooked up with J.D. Vance at the Olympics, he’s vocally supported ICE, he suggested that American skier Hunter Hess — who recently told the media “just because I’m wearing a flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in America” — should “go live somewhere else,” and he called Bad Bunny a “fake American citizen.” (He later walked back the Bad Bunny comment after people got mad at him online.)
Paul and Leerdam met in 2023 when he DM’d her on Instagram asking if she would appear on his podcast. (That age-old excuse!) While Riordan was initially disgusted by Paul’s approach—”What an arrogant (expletive)” was her initial correct comment—she quickly changed her mind. The pair got engaged last year, and Riordan now calls Paul “the hardest-working, sweetest-hearted man in the world.”
I want to tread lightly here—or as carefully as I can in a column titled “Olympic Jerk Watch”—because I want to believe that Riordan and Paul are actually in love. The two have certainly done their best to maximize the promotional synergy. In 2024, Paul spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about their grand plans for 2026: “Jutta wins the gold and I win the world title. We’ll be world champions at the same time.” (One in two isn’t bad, either!) Paul and Riordan are also currently starring in a reality TV show called The Reality Show alongside Logan Paul and his wife, Danish model Nina Agdal. Paul America. I watched some of the first episode, and I can report that it’s the kind of show that makes you nostalgic for the days when Jake Paul used to set backyards on fire. Here is some verbatim dialogue from the scene that took place around the dinner table:
Jake Paul: “Baby, do you want to sit here? Is this against the rules?”
Jutta Riordan: “Can I sit over here?”
Logan Paul (off camera): “Wait, why? Is there a bright side to cameras?”
Riordan: “No, actually, my good side has changed. Before, this was my good side, and now, actually, this is my good side. It’s so weird.”
Jake Paul: “Everything about you is fine.” (They kiss) “Even your insides.”
Riordan: “Oh! Well, that’s great you looked into them.”
Jake Paul: (Does Bug Eyes spit?)
Only an asshole would choose to appear on a show like this.
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Finally, it is perhaps worth noting that instead of traveling to Milan Cortina with his teammates, Leerdam flew there on a private jet and did not attend the opening ceremony, instead deciding to stay home, posting a TikTok of himself watching the opening ceremony from his bed. “Her behavior is horrible to me, like a heroine,” a Dutch sports commentator responded. “Gradually, the whole of the Netherlands started to get a little fed up with her behavior.”
Putting Riordan’s asshole issue aside for the moment, I’d like to add that the Dutch sports commentator looks like an asshole. Maybe he and Jake Paul should become friends.
Why she might not be a jerk: Look, if the title of this column was “Olympic Asshole Watch: Jake Paul,” I could leave out that entire part because there’s no question that Paul is a world-class asshole. However, it wouldn’t be fair to judge Jutta Riordan solely on her fiancé’s antics. As far as I know, Leerdam was never set she After all, her backyard is on fire — and she hasn’t publicly boxed with famously diminutive former NBA player Nate Robinson. Are the YouTuber’s sins to be blamed on his world-class speed skater fiancée? They shouldn’t.
Since I am not a Dutch sports commentator, I must admit that Riordan’s behavior is not terrible to me. While I think Jake Paul is an asshole, I’m also a lot older than him and Leerdam, I’m willing to admit that I may have missed something about his appeal. There are surely millions of young women around the world who would jump at the chance to date Jake Paul. Are they all assholes? I suppose this is possible, but unfortunately the question is beyond the scope of this column.
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The truth is, celebrities date other celebrities all the time, and when they don’t, it’s a little weird, like when Elizabeth Taylor married construction worker Larry Fortensky. (I’m sure Paul and Leerdam have no idea who these two are.) It’s completely normal for two young, attractive, famous, athletic people to find each other, and I believe “quietly DMing you to invite you on the podcast” is the act of courtship on YouTube. I’m a man in his 40s who blogs for a living. Who am I to judge?
Finally, I will point out that if I had the opportunity to fly on a private jet instead of flying to the Olympics like Delta does, I would knock over multiple seniors for the opportunity. commercial air travel blow. While Leerdam’s choice to opt out of the opening ceremony might not have been the best move, the extra rest seemed to work in her favor: She skated flawlessly on Monday and beat her teammate Femke Kok, who ranks first in the women’s 1,000m standings at this World Cup. The opening ceremony lasts only a few hours. Gold medals are always valid.
Clean and jerk score: As a reminder, all Olympic Clean and Jerk Watch candidates are evaluated on style, technical merit, and execution. For style, I’d give Jutta Leerdam a 2 out of 3 because having that private jet take her to the starting line of a 1000m race would be a bit precarious. Technical merit is 1.5 out of 3 because a DM-based relationship with Elon Musk would be more volatile. Execution score is 3/1 because a true asshole would replace the Dutch national anthem with a recording of “It’s Everyday Bro” at an awards ceremony. 0 out of 1 for never having the guts to try and punch Nate Robinson. Jutta Leerdam rated it 4.5 out of 10. Next!
Previous observations about Olympic clean and jerk: Skier who puts ‘extreme’ on most wanted fugitive
