Jake Paul cheers from the second row as his fiancée, Jutta Leerdam, wins Olympic speedskating gold

MILAN (AP) — Jutta Leerdam was in the middle of an interview after winning a speedskating gold medal at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics on Monday when she looked up to see her fiancé, YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul, walking over.

She interrupted an answer to say, “Hi, babe!” and leaned in for a kiss as Paul put his hands on her shoulders.

A moment later, Paul headed for an arena exit with multiple bodyguards and someone filming his every move for a documentary. Paul wore a scarf with the orange color of the Dutch team as he watched from a second-row seat while Leerdam finished first in the women’s 1,000 meters for her first Olympic gold.

“Man, words can’t even describe it. It’s the greatest feeling (of) anything I’ve ever witnessed, to be honest,” Paul told The Associated Press. “Just the amount of hard work that goes into it. Like 99.9% of people will never understand. And she pulled it off, under the most amount of pressure ever.”

During the race, Paul was the very picture of focus, alternating clapping or wringing his hands while standing to watch Leerdam compete.

“He knows the pressure I felt, and the buildup and everything. He’s just felt everything with me,” Leerdam said. “He is definitely emotionally involved.”

When she was done, and had won, she went over to the sideboards in front of where Paul was and paused, crying. She blew a kiss and made a heart shape with her hands while looking up toward Paul.

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. She raced in the last of 15 heats Monday.

Separately, Leerdam and Paul draw big crowds to their social media sites — her Instagram page has about 5 million followers; his has more than 28 million. Together, they draw a lot of eyeballs and interest.

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 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.”

His bodyguards ended the interview with the AP before Paul could be asked about those topics Monday.

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.

Leerdam is a 27-year-old Dutch athlete who also is scheduled to participate in the 500 meters next Sunday.

Her trophy collection includes 12 world championship medals, with six golds. Two of those titles arrived in the 1,000 — in 2020 and 2023.

Now she has an Olympic gold, too.

Paul is a 29-year-old American influencer who first gained fame for his YouTube videos and then made his way into the world of boxing about five years ago.

He most recently had his jaw broken during sixth-round knockout loss to former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua at Miami in December.

Paul has also gone up against a 58-year-old Mike Tyson in November 2024, plus Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., retired UFC fighters Anderson Silva and Nate Díaz, and former NBA player Nate Robinson.

As he left Monday's venue, he pointed out that it was harder “to sit there, for sure,” watching Leerdam than to enter the ring himself.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Jake Paul of the U.S. cries after his finale Jutta Leerdam of the Netherlands won the gold medal in the women's 1,000 meters speedskating race at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

Jutta Leerdam of the Netherlands, center and gold medal, Femke Kok of the Netherlands, left and silver medal, and Japan's Miho Takagi, right and bronze medal, pose on the podium of the women's 1,000 meters speedskating race at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Jake Paul of the U.S., center, cries after his fiancé Jutta Leerdam of the Netherlands won the gold medal in the women's 1,000 meters speedskating race at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

Jutta Leerdam of the Netherlands concentrates prior to the women's 1,000 meters speedskating race at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

Jake Paul of the U.S. flashes a V-sign as he arrives to support his fiancé Jutta Leerdam of the Netherlands competing in the women's 1,000 meters speedskating race at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Jutta Leerdam of the Netherlands cries after winning the gold medal in the women's 1,000 meters speedskating race at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Jake Paul of the U.S., gestures as he waits to watch his fiancé Jutta Leerdam of the Netherlands compete in the women's 1,000 meters speedskating race at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

HOUSTON (AP) — Their dramatic grand finale fast approaching, Artemis II’s astronauts aimed for a splashdown in the Pacific on Friday to close out humanity’s first voyage to the moon in more than a half-century.

The tension in Mission Control mounted as the miles melted away between the four returning astronauts and Earth.

All eyes were on the capsule’s life-protecting heat shield that has to withstand thousands of degrees during reentry. On the spacecraft's only other test flight — in 2022, with no one on board — the shield’s charred exterior came back looking as pockmarked as the moon.

Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen were on track to hit the atmosphere traveling Mach 33 — or 33 times the speed of sound — a blistering blur not seen since NASA’s Apollo moonshots of the 1960s and 1970s.

They didn’t plan on taking manual control except in an emergency. Their Orion capsule, dubbed Integrity, is completely self-flying.

Like so many others, lead flight director Jeff Radigan anticipated feeling some of that “irrational fear that is human nature,” especially during the six minutes of communication blackout preceding the opening of the parachutes. The recovery ship USS John P. Murtha awaited the crew's arrival off the coast of San Diego, along with a squadron of military planes and helicopters.

The last time NASA and the Defense Department teamed up for a lunar crew's reentry was Apollo 17 in 1972. Artemis II was projected to come screaming back at 36,170 feet (11,025 meters) per second — or 24,661 mph (39,668 kph) — just shy of the record before slowing to a 19 mph (30 kph) splashdown.

Launched from Florida on April 1, the astronauts racked up one win after another as they deftly navigated NASA’s long-awaited lunar comeback, the first major step in establishing a sustainable moon base.

Artemis II didn't land on the moon or even orbit it. But it broke Apollo 13's distance record and marked the farthest that humans have ever journeyed from Earth when the crew reached 252,756 miles (406,771 kilometers). Then in the mission's most heart-tugging scene, the teary astronauts asked permission to name a pair of craters after their moonship and Wiseman's late wife, Carroll.

During Monday's record-breaking flyby, they documented scenes of the moon's far side never seen before by the human eye along with a total solar eclipse. The eclipse, in particular, “just blew all of us away,” Glover said.

Their sense of wonder and love awed everyone, as did their breathtaking pictures of the moon and Earth. The Artemis II crew channeled Apollo 8's first lunar explorers with Earthset, showing our Blue Marble setting behind the gray moon. It was reminiscent of Apollo 8’s famous Earthrise shot from 1968.

“It just makes you want to continue to go back,” Radigan said on the eve of splashdown. “It's the first of many trips and we just need to continue on because there’s so much” more to learn about the moon.

Their moonshot drew global attention as well as star power, earning props from President Donald Trump; Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney; Britain's King Charles III; Ryan Gosling, star of the latest space flick “Project Hail Mary”; Scarlett Johansson of the Marvel Cinematic Universe; and even Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner of TV’s original “Star Trek.”

Despite its rich scientific yield, the nearly 10-day flight was not without technical issues. Both the capsule’s drinking water and propellant systems were hit with valve problems. In perhaps the most high-profile predicament, the toilet kept malfunctioning, but the astronauts shrugged it all off.

“We can’t explore deeper unless we are doing a few things that are inconvenient,” Koch said, “unless we’re making a few sacrifices, unless we’re taking a few risks, and those things are all worth it.”

Added Hansen: “You do a lot of testing on the ground, but your final test is when you get this hardware to space and it’s a doozy.”

Under the revamped Artemis program, next year’s Artemis III will see astronauts practice docking their capsule with a lunar lander or two in orbit around Earth. Artemis IV will attempt to land a crew of two near the moon’s south pole in 2028.

The Artemis II astronauts' allegiance was to those future crews, Wiseman said.

“But we really hoped in our soul is that we could for just for a moment have the world pause and remember that this is a beautiful planet and a very special place in our universe, and we should all cherish what we have been gifted,” he said.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

In this image from video provided by NASA, the Artemis II Orion capsule, right, separates from the service module above the Earth in preparation for splash down in the Pacific Ocean. (NASA via AP)

In this image provided by NASA, the Artemis II crew, counterclockwise from top left, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, Commander Reid Wiseman, and Pilot Victor Glover pose with eclipse viewers during a lunar flyby, Monday, April 6, 2026. (NASA via AP)

In this image provided by NASA, the Artemis II crew photographed the Moons curved limb during their journey around the far side of the Moon on April 6, 2026. (NASA via AP)

In this image provided by NASA, the Artemis II crew photographed a bright portion of the Moon on April 6, 2026. (NASA via AP)

In this image provided by NASA, the Artemis II crew captured this view as the Earth sets behind the Moon during a lunar flyby, Monday, April 6, 2026. (NASA via AP)