The Netherlands have finished top of the speed skating medals table at the past two Winter Olympics, including winning seven gold, four silver and five bronze at Pyeongchang 2018.

Schouten will head into tomorrow’s women’s 3,000m event with confidence, after winning two of the three World Cup events in the Olympic season over the distance.

The multiple world and European champion will seek her maiden Olympic title, having won mass start bronze in Pyeongchang.

Canada’s Isabelle Weidemann and fellow Dutch skater Antoinette de Jong will be among other contenders for the first speed skating title of the Games.

Ireen Wüst and Sven Kramer will also feature among the Dutch speed skating team at the Games, with the pair being the country’s most successful Olympians.

Wüst’s 11 Olympic medals are a record for the figure skater, while Kramer has won four Olympic gold medals across the past three Games.

The competition is taking place at the National Speed Skating Oval, which is also known as the "Ice Ribbon".

The 12,000-capacity venue was constructed for the Games, with the design said to resemble the trails of skaters, with a number of tube-shaped lights adorning the walls.

A total of 14 Olympic titles will be earned at the largest speed skating venue in Asia during the Games.

Japan will have high hopes with Nao Kodaira and Nana Takagi seeking to defend the women’s 500 metres and mass start titles from Pyeongchang 2018.

United States will seek to improve on their only bronze medal from Pyeongchang 2018, with Erin Jackson among their medal hopes.

Jackson won four of the eight women’s 500m World Cup races contested during the season, but required her team-mate Brittany Bowe to relinquish her place to compete in the event at Beijing 2022.

Jackson slipped in the deciding race at the United States Speed Skating trials resulting in her missing the cut off for selection.

Bowe had already qualified for her third Olympics in the 1000m and 1500m events, leading to her giving up the 500m spot to world number one Jackson.