1,500 metres, Women

The dominant miler in the 2017 season had been America’s Heather Bergsma, winning both the season’s World Cup as the World title. Her best placement in the Olympic season, however, was a sole second place at the Stavanger World Cup. Instead of Bergsma, Japan’s Miho Takagi - a bronze medalist at the 2017 Worlds - had won the first four races of the World Cup season. The Dutch had claimed the first four spots at the 2014 Games, and they fielded almost the same team. Due to the reduction in quota, only three skaters were allowed to go, and in the competitive Dutch Trials that meant that defending champion Jorien ter Mors did not qualify. That still left the 2010 champion and 2014 silver medallist Ireen Wüst, runner-up in the 2017 World Cup season Marrit Leenstra and 2014 bronze medallist Lotte van Beek.

Sprinter Nao Kodaira set a tough pace in the second pair, putting the target at 1:56.11. The first to contest that mark was Brittany Bowe. The 2015 world champion, she had suffered a concussion in training in 2016 and had required a long path to recovery. Her 1:55.54 took her to first place, albeit with all of the season’s best skaters still to come. Wüst, winner of the fifth World Cup in 2018, was the first of them. In her characteristic all-or-nothing style, she shattered Bowe’s mark by a full second (1:54.35). Leenstra mounted a serious attack in the following pair, but lost a full second in the final lap to end up in second with 1:55.26. Van Beek then attacked Leenstra’s time, and only missed it by 1/100 of a second. With one pair to go, this meant the Dutch were headed for another podium sweep, except that Takagi and Bergsma still had to skate. Bergsma had the second-fastest first half, but had lost her advantage to Wüst at the bell and faded to an 8th place finish. By contrast, Takagi had stuck to Wüst’s pace, and managed to stay quite close even in the final lap, ending up a close second with 1:54.55.

Next to her title, Wüst earned several records with her win. With 5 golds (10 total), she became the most successful Dutch Olympian of all time. She also became the first Winter Olympian to win gold at four consecutive Games, a record shared with Olympic greats Michael Phelps, Carl Lewis, Al Oerter, Ben Ainslie, Kaori Icho and Paul Elvstrøm.