Wüst became the most successful speed skating Olympian ever by achieving at least one gold medal in each of five consecutive Winter Olympic appearances.

Wüst is the second athlete (after Britain's Steve Redgrave) to win a gold medal at five consecutive Olympics, Summer or Winter, and the first to do so in individual events.

Wüst debuted at the 2004 KNSB Dutch Single Distance Championships in November 2003 with ninth place in both the 500m and 1500m events.

There she came fourth and secured a spot in the Dutch team for the 2005 World Allround Championships in Moscow, Russia, where she finished in fifth place.

Before the Olympics, she started in the 2006 European Championships in Hamar, where she won the bronze medal behind Claudia Pechstein of Germany and teammate Renate Groenewold.

At her last event of the season, the 2006 World Allround Championships, Wüst finished fourth after she had been ill a few days before the tournament.

In Nagano during the 2008 World Distance Championships, she won the gold medal in the team pursuit alongside Groenewold and Van Deutekom.

[19] On 22 February 2022, she was further appointed a Commander of the Order of Orange-Nassau for her outstanding performance in sport in general over the years and winning the women's 1500 m speed skating competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

[21] The umlaut "ü" in her family name, which is normally not used in Dutch, stems from a German ancestor who settled as a merchant in the Friesian town of Dokkum at the end of the 18th century.