|
| Event type

5,000 metres, Men

Date 5 February 1964 — 13:50
StatusOlympic
LocationEisschnellaufbahn im Olympiaeisstadion, Innsbruck
Participants42 from 19 countries
Olympic Record 7:48.7 / Boris Shilkov URS / 29 January 1956
StarterGustav SlanecAUT
RefereeSven LåftmanSWE

The gold and silver medalists from 1960 were back, Viktor Kosichkin and Knut Johannesen, and they were still considered formidable. Johannesen had won the distance at the recent 1964 European Championships, while Kosichkin was the 1962 World All-Around Champion and won the distance, and the all-around, at the 1961 Europeans. The world record holder was Sweden’s Jonny Nilsson, with 7:34.3 set in February 1963 at Karuizawa, Japan, and he was also considered a threat as he had won the 1963 World Championships, and won the 5K in the process.

In the third pair, lightly considered Austrian Hermann Strutz broke the Olympic record with 7:48.3 to take the early lead. In the next pair, Kosichkin recorded 7:45.8 to move ahead. The fifth pair had Norway’s Per Ivar Moe, who came across in 7:38.6, the second fastest time ever recorded. Jonny Nilsson was up in the seventh pair but his 7:48.4 would earn him only sixth place. In the 14th pair Johannesen was well behind Moe’s pace at 3,000 metres but came on strongly to finish in 7:48.7 – or that was the time flashed on the scoreboard. But a few seconds later, it was changed to Johannesen’s official time of 7:38.4, which earned him the gold medal. The Norwegian medal sweep was the first ever in men’s Olympic speed skating, and only the second at that time, following a Soviet sweep in the women’s 500 metres only six days before. On Austrian television, Strutz was initially announced as the silver medalist. After the error was corrected a viewer from Vienna sent a valuable gold coin to the television station, who presented it to Strutz as consolation.

PosPairCompetitorNOCTime
114OKnut JohannesenNOR7:38.4GoldOR
25IPer Ivar MoeNOR7:38.6SilverOR
310OFred Anton MaierNOR7:42.0Bronze
44OViktor KosichkinURS7:45.8OR
53IHermann StrutzAUT7:48.3OR
67IJonny NilssonSWE7:48.4
713IIvar NilssonSWE7:49.0
815ORudi LiebrechtsNED7:50.9
96OKees VerkerkNED7:51.1
1019OMuzakhid KhabibulinURS7:52.3
113OGünter TraubGER7:53.9
122IKurt StilleDEN7:56.1
1317OGerd ZimmermannGER7:56.8
142ORenato De RivaITA7:57.5
151IKalervo HietalaFIN7:58.8
1614ITerry MalkinGBR7:59.4
171OChoi Yeong-BaeKOR8:03.4
1812IJouko LaunonenFIN8:03.5
1921OÖrjan SandlerSWE8:05.3
2013ODick HuntUSA8:09.7
2118IToivo SalonenFIN8:10.2
224ITony BullenGBR8:12.4
2311ISatoshi ShinpoJPN8:12.5
2418OToyofumi ArugaJPN8:15.9
2516IRalf OlinCAN8:18.2
=265OGyörgy IvánkaiHUN8:19.4
=268IYoshihiro KawanoJPN8:19.4
286IBak Sung-WunPRK8:20.2
2921IWayne LeBombardUSA8:21.3
3010IKim Choon-BongPRK8:22.9
3117ILuvsansharavyn TsendMGL8:23.9
328ORuedi UsterSUI8:24.8
337OOldřich TeplýTCH8:25.6
3420IPeter NottetNED8:26.1
359IGerald KoningCAN8:26.9
3616OChoi Nam-YeonKOR8:28.0
3711OReinhold SeeböckAUT8:29.6
389OStan FailUSA8:31.9
3920OJürgen SchmidtGER8:36.6
4012OPeter BüttnerSUI8:45.5
4115IMihály MartosHUN8:47.1
4219IGerhard StrutzAUT8:50.4
DNSThomas DawsonGBR
DNSYury YumashevURS