5,000 metres, Men

Two men had dominated this distance during the 1987-1988 season. Geir Karlstad had won the first three World Cup races of the season. At the Heerenveen World Cup, he had improved the world record to 6:45.44, only to beat that time again at the Calgary World Cup: 6:43.59. But Karlstad had faded since, his role taken over by Tomas Gustafson. The defending Olympic champion had won the remaining two World Cups, and had become European Allround Champion in Den Haag prior to the Games. A third title contender was Leo Visser. He had broken the world record at the 1987 World Championships, and had been shared winner with Gustafson at the Davos World Cup.

The first of the favorites to skate, Visser rode a very steady race, finishing with 6:44.98. Karlstad then departed ambitiously, beating Visser’s splits by two seconds in the early laps. But the Norwegian was unable to keep the pace. He was eventually passed by his opponent, Michael Hadschieff, and finished seventh. Visser’s teammate, Gerard Kemkers, also started faster in the first half of the race, but did not fade like Karlstad, and finished only one second behind the leading time. In the ninth pair, Gustafson was the last medal contender to skate. He trailed Visser’s time for the entire race, and with one lap to go, Gustafson was 0.87 behind Visser, and even slightly behind Kemkers. But the Swede delivered an incredible final lap with 31.86 seconds (compared to Visser’s 33.08), and he moved up from bronze medal position to gold. This made Gustafson the first repeat winner of the event since Ivar Ballangrud won it in 1928 and 1936.