Speed Skating at the 2018 Winter Olympics

Twelve years after the last change - the introduction of the team pursuit in 2006 - the Olympic program for speed skating was once again extended. The mass start event was added. Mass start skating had already been contested at the 1932 Lake Placid Games, when North American rules were applied to the traditional distances. A form of mass start had been introduced in the World Cup in the 2005/2006 season, and gained official status in 2011/2012. Starting in 2014/2015, the distance was pinned to 16 laps (of the inside of the track), and it gained World Championships status. The admission of the new events forced the ISU to drop the two-run 500 m events, reducing them again to a single run, as had been the case until 1994.

Competitions were held in the Gangneung Oval, which had opened in 2017 when it hosted the World Single Distance Championships. On that occasion, despite being at sea level, the rink had shown to be quite fast, among other producing the second fastest 10,000 m ever (12:38.89 by Sven Kramer). In Sochi, the Netherlands had dominated the sport, winning 8 out of 12 titles and 23 of 32 medals. As a result, national quota in events had been lowered. In the three shortest distances, the quorum per country was now 3 skaters (previously 4), while in the longest event (and the new mass start), it was 2 (previously 3). While still the foremost speed skating nation in 2018, the Dutch were a bit less dominant, although they still claimed half of the 14 gold medals and 16 medals in all. Notably, the two team pursuit titles were won by Norway (men) and Japan (women), both nations that had not claimed an Olympic title since 1998. No skater dominated individually, although both Kjeld Nuis and Nana Takagi earned two gold medals. Also notable was the début of the first South American speed skaters as Colombia sent two skaters. Both of them had a background in inline skating, a sport in which Colombia has been very successful for many years.