Date | 23 February 1988 — 18:00 | |
---|---|---|
Status | Olympic | |
Location | Olympic Oval, Calgary | |
Participants | 29 from 16 countries | |
Olympic Record | 4:24.79 / Andrea Schöne GDR / 15 February 1984 | |
Starter | UNK | |
Referee | UNK |
The 3,000 m was set to be an all-East German affair. At the five international 3,000 ms held in the 1987-1988 season, five East Germans had divided the medals. Three of them had won a race, and all three of them were racing in Calgary: Gabi Zange, Karin Kania and Andrea Ehrig. In fact, these three women had occupied the podium at the 1984 Olympics, when Ehrig had beaten Kania and Zange for the title. In the present season, Kania had won the World Cup races in Berlin and Butte, while Ehrig had won in Davos and at the European Championships. Zange had won the World Cup in Calgary, en passant breaking the world record and lowering it to 4:16.76. That record had been in the hands of Yvonne van Gennip, who had skated 4:16.85 in Heerenveen the previous season. But van Gennip had suffered from various injuries in the past months, and had recovered only just in time for the Olympics.
The race started dramatically, with Ehrig racing against Kania. The latter took off at an insane pace. Barely half-way through the race, Kania had a five-second advantage on Zange’s world record. Unsurprisingly, she hit the wall, and barely made it to the finish line, needing almost 40 seconds for the final lap. Ehrig, in the meanwhile, had been able to keep her pace, setting a world record of 4:12.09, well below the old mark. Zange herself, riding in the third pair, approximately matched her own world record (4:16.92), which was enough to beat Kania, but not Ehrig. Van Gennip was behind the leading times for the entire race, but not by far. With her final lap, she made up for the 0.63 second deficit, and crossed the line in 4:11.94, for a very surprising gold medal. It would be the first of her three Olympic titles in Calgary, matching the feat of her compatriot Ard Schenk in 1972.
Pos | Pair | Competitor | NOC | Time | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 4I | Yvonne van Gennip | NED | 4:11.94 | Gold | ||
2 | 1I | Andrea Ehrig | GDR | 4:12.09 | Silver | ||
3 | 3O | Gabi Zange | GDR | 4:16.92 | Bronze | ||
4 | 1O | Karin Kania | GDR | 4:18.80 | |||
5 | 15I | Erwina Ryś-Ferens | POL | 4:22.59 | |||
6 | 9O | Svetlana Boyko | URS | 4:22.90 | |||
=7 | 5O | Seiko Hashimoto | JPN | 4:23.29 | |||
=7 | 6I | Yelena Lapuga | URS | 4:23.29 | |||
9 | 6O | Yelena Tumanova | URS | 4:24.07 | |||
10 | 10O | Jasmin Krohn | SWE | 4:25.06 | |||
11 | 9I | Jane Goldman | USA | 4:25.26 | |||
12 | 12O | Anja Mischke | FRG | 4:26.30 | |||
13 | 7I | Elena Belci | ITA | 4:27.21 | |||
14 | 4O | Emese Nemeth-Hunyady | AUT | 4:27.56 | |||
15 | 10I | Ariane Loignon | CAN | 4:28.55 | |||
16 | 2O | Marieke Stam | NED | 4:28.92 | |||
17 | 14O | Han Chun-Ok | PRK | 4:29.16 | |||
18 | 2I | Natsue Seki | JPN | 4:29.77 | |||
19 | 3I | Mary Docter | USA | 4:29.93 | |||
20 | 12I | Leslie Bader | USA | 4:30.09 | |||
21 | 8I | Zhang Qing | CHN | 4:30.19 | |||
22 | 14I | Kim Young-Ok | KOR | 4:30.60 | |||
23 | 13I | Song Hwa-Son | PRK | 4:31.05 | |||
24 | 7O | Marie-France van Helden | FRA | 4:32.34 | |||
25 | 13O | Minna Nystedt | NOR | 4:35.35 | |||
26 | 8O | Chantal Côté | CAN | 4:35.74 | |||
27 | 11I | Stéphanie Dumont | FRA | 4:38.03 | |||
28 | 15O | Choi Hye-Sook | KOR | 4:42.26 | |||
5I | Ingrid Paul | NED | [4:29.53] |