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| Event type

1,500 metres, Women

Date12 February 1992 — 16:00
StatusOlympic
LocationAnneau de Vitesse, Albertville
Participants33 from 14 countries
Olympic Record 2:00.68 / Yvonne van Gennip NED / 27 February 1988
StarterAndré KouprianoffFRA
RefereeOdd-Jens BjerkliNOR

Looking at the results of the 1991-92 season, the 1500 m was anticipated to become a duel between Austria’s Emese Hunyady and Gunda Niemann. The latter had recently established herself as the dominant female skater. In 1991, she had won the World Allround Championships with three distance wins, and she had already won four consecutive European titles (1989-1992), winning the 1,500 m every time. But Hunyady, who had married an Austrian to escape from her native Hungary, had beaten Niemann at the Collalbo World Cup, having won the Warszawa event in Niemann’s absence earlier on.

But as with other events in Albertville, the competition was adversely affected by the warm weather. Several countries complained about the ice preparation schedule, which left the pairs immediately after ice cleaning with considerably better circumstances than those skaters in later pairs. This was to the benefit of a German outsider, Jacqueline Börner. She had been the World Allround Champion in 1990, but later that year she had suffered severe injuries in a car accident. While bike training in Berlin with several teammates, she was hit by a Trabant, after an altercation between the car’s driver and the skaters. She sustained leg, knee, rib and head injuries, and was still walking with crutches a year before the Olympics. She recovered in time for the Olympic season, but did not have high hopes for the Games. A third place at the Berlin World Cup gave her hope for a bronze medal in Albertville. But her first pair performance of 2:05.87 would land her the gold medal. Duped by the conditions, Hunyady (pair five) did no better than seventh, while Niemann (pair six) finished just 0.05 seconds behind her teammate. The bronze was surprisingly won by Seiko Hashimoto, also a three time Olympian in track cycling. While she had been runner-up behind Börner at the 1990 World Championships, she had recently concentrated on sprinting, and her 1,500 m medal was unexpected.

PosPairCompetitorNOCTime
11IJacqueline BörnerGER2:05.87Gold
26IGunda NiemannGER2:05.92Silver
33ISeiko HashimotoJPN2:06.88Bronze
411INataliya PolozkovaEUN2:07.12
52IMonique GarbrechtGER2:07.24
63OSvetlana BazhanovaEUN2:07.81
75OEmese HunyadyAUT2:08.29
816IHeike WarnickeGER2:08.52
912OCarla ZijlstraNED2:08.54
101OLyudmila ProkashovaEUN2:08.71
1110OMie UeharaJPN2:09.33
124IElse Ragni YttredalNOR2:09.38
1312IJasmin KrohnSWE2:09.62
149OEwa WasilewskaPOL2:09.64
158OMary DocterUSA2:09.66
164OLia van SchieNED2:09.70
172OMihaela DascăluROU2:09.87
186OSandra VoetelinkNED2:10.31
=1911OElena BelciITA2:10.75
=199IYumi KaeriyamaJPN2:10.75
2117OBonnie BlairUSA2:10.89
227OChong Chang-SukPRK2:11.06
2310IZhang QingCHN2:11.26
248ILiu JunhongCHN2:11.61
2513OYelena LapugaEUN2:11.72
267IAngela ZuckermanUSA2:13.21
2714ITara LaszloUSA2:13.35
2813ICerasela HordobețiuROU2:14.69
2916OKim Chun-WolPRK2:14.87
3015OEdel Therese HøisethNOR2:14.93
3117ISong Hwa-SonPRK2:15.87
3215IKrisztina EgyedHUN2:21.11
DNF5IYvonne van GennipNEDfall
DNS14OElke FelicettiITA