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Team Pursuit (6 laps), Women

Date19 – 21 February 2018
StatusOlympic
LocationGangneung Oval, Gangneung Olympic Park, Coastal Cluster, Gangneung
Participants30 from 8 countries
FormatSingle-elimination event.
Olympic Record 2:58.43 / Marrit LeenstraJorien ter MorsIreen Wüst NED / 22 February 2014
StarterStefan HerrmannGER
RefereeBert TimmermanNED

Since the Sochi Olympics, two teams had dominated the women’s team pursuit: Netherlands (the defending Olympic champion) and Japan. The two nations had placed 1-2 in all of the three intervening World Championships, with Japan winning once and Netherlands twice. In the World Cup, Japan won twice, and Netherlands once. In the 2018 season, all three World Cup races had been won by the Japanese ladies. While the Dutch only raced with their A-team on one occasion, the Japanese went all out and lowered the world record on each of these three occasions, improving it by a total of 5 seconds.

The quarterfinals confirmed expectations, with Netherlands setting the fastest time (a new Olympic record), closely followed by Japan. The other nations were at least 3 seconds slower, with the North American teams of Canada and the US making the cut. The host nation, Korea, placed seventh, but their performance gained lots of attention. One of the skaters, No Seon-Yeong was unable to follow the pace and fell back. In the post-race press conference, the other two skaters, who hadn’t noticed No falling behind, blamed her (and other external factors) for the team’s failure. The Korean public didn’t accept this “bullying” of No, who had hoped to win a medal in Pyeongchang in honor of her deceased brother No Jin-Gyu, a former short track world champion. A petition was set up for the South Korean government to remove Kim Bo-Reum and Park Ji-Wu from the team. The petition received half a million signatures, well above the limit that warrants an official response. After an apology, all three skaters appeared on the ice again in the consolation round.

In the semi-finals, the Americans didn’t even try to beat the Dutch, instead opting to save energy for the bronze medal race. Japan also had an easy semi, setting up the expected final. The concluding race was a close affair, with the teams switching leads. In the final laps, the Japanese pulled away to win the event for the first time. The level of competition was high: Japan recorded the second fastest time ever, and the Dutch recorded a national record, slightly below what had been the world record until the beginning of the season. In the bronze medal match, the Americans saw their semi-final strategy prove fruitful. Short-distance specialists Brittany Bowe and Heather Bergsma both faded towards the end of their race, but they had gained sufficient advantage to hold on to the bronze.

PosCompetitorsNOC
1JapanJPNGold
Miho TakagiAyaka KikuchiAyano SatoNana Takagi
2NetherlandsNEDSilver
Marrit LeenstraLotte van BeekIreen WüstAntoinette de Jong
3United StatesUSABronze
Heather BergsmaBrittany BoweMia ManganelloCarlijn Schoutens
4CanadaCAN
Ivanie BlondinKeri MorrisonJosie MorrisonIsabelle Weidemann
5People's Republic of ChinaCHN
Li DanLiu JingHan MeiHao Jiachen
6GermanyGER
Roxanne DufterGabriele HirschbichlerClaudia PechsteinMichelle Uhrig (DNS)
7PolandPOL
Natalia CzerwonkaLuiza ZłotkowskaKatarzyna Bachleda-CuruśKarolina Bosiek
8Republic of KoreaKOR
Kim Bo-ReumPark Ji-WuNo Seon-YeongPark Seung-Hui (DNS)

Quarter-Finals

Date19 February 2018 — 20:00
FormatWinner of each heat advance to semi-finals.
PosCompetitorsNOCTime
1NetherlandsNED2:55.61QOR
Marrit LeenstraIreen WüstAntoinette de Jong
2JapanJPN2:56.09Q
Miho TakagiAyano SatoNana Takagi
3CanadaCAN2:59.02Q
Ivanie BlondinJosie MorrisonIsabelle Weidemann
4United StatesUSA2:59.75Q
Heather BergsmaBrittany BoweMia Manganello
5People's Republic of ChinaCHN3:00.01
Li DanHan MeiHao Jiachen
6GermanyGER3:02.65
Roxanne DufterGabriele HirschbichlerClaudia Pechstein
7Republic of KoreaKOR3:03.76
Kim Bo-ReumPark Ji-WuNo Seon-Yeong
8PolandPOL3:04.80
Natalia CzerwonkaLuiza ZłotkowskaKatarzyna Bachleda-Curuś

Semi-Finals

Date21 February 2018 — 20:00
FormatWinner of each heat advance to final A.
MatchDate/TimeCompetitorsNOCResultCompetitorsNOC
Match #121 Feb 20:00NetherlandsNED3:00.41 – 3:07.28United StatesUSAQ
Match #221 Feb 20:06JapanJPN2:58.94 – 3:01.84CanadaCANQ

Final Round

Date21 February 2018 — 20:54
MatchDate/TimeCompetitorsNOCResultCompetitorsNOC
Final D21 Feb 20:54PolandPOL3:03.11 – 3:07.30Republic of KoreaKOR
Final C21 Feb 21:00People's Republic of ChinaCHN3:00.04 – 3:04.67GermanyGER
Final B21 Feb 21:52United StatesUSA2:59.27 – 2:59.72CanadaCAN
Final A21 Feb 21:58JapanJPN2:53.89 – 2:55.48NetherlandsNEDOR