1,000 metres, Women

In the 2017 season, the 1,000 m had been dominated by Heather Bergsma. Formerly known as Heather Richardson, she had married the 2014 Olympic champion in the 10,000 m, Jorrit Bergsma. Apart from the 2017 World title, Heather Bergsma had also won all six World Cup races she raced in, as well as the overall title and a 2nd place in the World Sprint Championships. In the Olympic season, though, Bergsma showed less form. She did win one World Cup, but that was due to a fall by Nao Kodaira, winner of the Olympic 500 m in Pyeongchang. Kodaira had in fact won the other three races she had participated in, and had also claimed the world record, lowering it to 1:12.09. Various other skaters had shown strong performances, including Vanessa Herzog, Jorien ter Mors, Marrit Leenstra and Miho Takagi.

Ter Mors was the first of these favorites to skate. She trailed former world record holder Brittany Bowe going into the final lap, but then produced a 28.50 lap - the fastest final lap of the field - to finish in 1:13.56 (Olympic and Track Record). Allrounder Takagi also had a fast final lap (28.74), but didn’t have the same sprint speed and came home in 1:13.98. Kodaira then viciously attacked the leading time, but lost her half-second advantage going into the final lap, with a final time of 1:13.82. In the final pair, both Leenstra and Bergsma were vitually beaten at 600 m, as neither of them was faster than Ter Mors there, and they placed outside of the medal ranks. It was Ter Mors’s third career gold medal after winning the 1,500 m and team pursuit in Sochi. Later in the Olympics, she would also win a bronze medal in the short-track relay, becoming the first female Winter Olympian to win medals in two sports at the same Games.