5,000 metres, Men

The favorite was Norway’s Knut Johannesen who was had won the distance at the last three European Championships. A strong distance skater, he had been silver medalist in the 10,000 at Cortina. The world record was held by Boris Shilkov, who was the defending champion, but did not compete at Squaw Valley. At the World Championships, the 5,000 had been won at the recent 1960 meet by Soviet skater Valery Kotov and in 1959 by Dutch skater Jan Pesman, and both appeared for the race. A few days before the event, in a pre-Olympic meet in Squaw Valley, Pesman had won the distance with Johannesen second.

High winds hampered the race. The favorites were drawn late among the 37 starters, the first to go off Johannesen in the ninth pair. The leader at the time was his teammate, Torsten Seierstein, with 8:05.3. Johannesen was behind his pace almost throughout, but caught up on the final laps, and finished much more strongly, crossing in 8:00.8 to take the lead. Pesman was the next favorite up, in the 11th pair, alongside Soviet skater Viktor Kosichkin. Pesman skated well, and would eventually win the bronze medal, with a time of 8:05.1. But he was crushed by Kosichkin, who was not unknown, having placed second at the distance at the 1959 European Championships and third at the recent 1960 Worlds. He started behind Seierstein’s pace until 2,600 metres, but then reeled off metronymic 37-38 second laps to the end, winning easily with 7:51.3, over nine seconds ahead of Johannesen. A few days later, in the 10,000, Johannesen would win with Kosichkin second. Together they would fight several battles in the longer distances over the years, with Kosichkin winning the all-around at the 1961 European and 1962 World Championships.