5,000 metres, Men

Based on the results earlier in the season, there were three favorites for the gold. These three had occupied the podium places at all four international races held thusfar. At the first World Cup, Johann Olav Koss was the winner. But the Norwegian world record holder had suffered an inflamed pancreas just days before the Olympic 5,000 m. While he had recovered, his form was unknown. Koss’s compatriot Geir Karlstad had won the other two World Cup races in the season. Karlstad was looking for revenge for the 1988 Olympics, where he had performed disappointingly with a seventh place (and a fall in the 10,000 m). The third contender was Bart Veldkamp of the Netherlands, who won the 5,000 m at the European Championships.

Due to rainfall, it was expected the race would be postponed like earlier Olympic races in Albertville. This time, the referees decided to start as planned. That meant the first pairs were skated on very soft ice, hampering the early starters. This mostly hit Koss, who recorded 7:11.32 (seventh) and Veldkamp, who finished in 7:08.00 (fifth). After the first ice preparation, conditions became better. Young Dutchman Falko Zandstra took advantage of this, skating 7:02.28, beating his compatriot Leo Visser, the Olympic runner-up of 1988. But his time was no match for Geir Karlstad. The established long distance skater set off faster than Zandstra, and never looked back. His 6:59.97 was good enough to become the first Norwegian to win Olympic speed skating gold since 1976.

Prior to the Games, newspapers had revealed that Karlstad carried around a letter from Norwegian doctors, stating his body produced high levels of testosterone, close to the maximum allowed epi-testosterone - testosterone ratio of 1:6. Karlstad supposedly handed out this letter at doping controls, but various officials from the IOC and ISU attested that such a letter would not absolve Karlstad in case of an infringement. This was naturally brought up again after Karlstad’s win, but he passed doping tests without exceeding any limits, as he had done on all previous occasions.