1,500 metres, Men

The event had no clear favorite, but only a few weeks before the Olympics, at the 1964 European Championships, Soviet skater Ants Antson had won the distance. The world record was held by Finland’s Juhani Järvinen, but he had not won a major international at this distance since the 1959 European Championships. One interesting skater not present was Luo Zhihuan, a Chinese skater who had won the distance at the 1963 World Championships. But China was not an IOC member nation, and would not compete at the Winter Olympics until 1980.

A huge field of 54 skaters started. The event was heavily influenced by strong winds. The competition was extremely close with the top nine finishers all going thru 700 metres in 1:00 or 1:01, and thru 1,100 metres in 1:34 to 1:36. Thus the final lap decided the placements. The early leader was Soviet skater Eduard Matusevich, who finished in 2:12.2 in the fifth pair. Järvinen was in the next pair but barely missed that time with 2:12.4. Antson went off in the eighth pair and finished in 2:10.3, a time that would bring him the gold medal. Dutchman Kees Verkerk started late, in the 21st pair, and matched Antson’s splits thru 1,100 metres, but finished slightly slower, in 2:10.6, and earned the silver medal. In 1992, when Estonia returned to the Olympic Games as an independent nation, Ants Antson was chosen to carry the Estonian flag at the Albertville Winter Olympic opening ceremony.