Speed skating at the 2018 Winter Olympics – Women's 1500 metres

The women's 1500 metres speed skating competition of the 2018 Winter Olympics was held at the Gangneung Oval in Gangneung[1] on 12 February 2018.[2][3]

Women's 1500 metres
at the XXIII Olympic Winter Games
VenueGangneung Oval, Gangneung, South Korea
Date12 February
Competitors27 from 14 nations
Winning time1:54.35
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Ireen Wüst  Netherlands
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Miho Takagi  Japan
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Marrit Leenstra  Netherlands
← 2014
2022 →

Dutch skater Ireen Wüst, gold medalist at the previous Winter Olympics in this discipline, won the gold medal, Miho Takagi from Japan won the silver medal and Marrit Leenstra from the Netherlands won bronze, only 0.01 seconds ahead of her fellow countrywoman Lotte van Beek. On winning the gold medal Wüst became the first athlete to win gold medals at four consecutive Winter Olympics, exactly twelve years after her first Olympic medal in the 3000 metres in 2006,[4] and with a total of ten medals, including five golds, Wüst takes the seventh position in the list of best Winter Olympic athlete ever.[5] Wüst also became the most decorated Olympic skater in terms of the total number of medals. For Japan's Miho Takagi, it was her first Olympic medal.

In the victory ceremony, the medals were presented by Hayley Wickenheiser, member of the International Olympic Committee accompanied by Patricia St. Peter, ISU council member.

Summary

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The race started at 21.30 local time. Wüst was the first of the medal candidates to set a time. She began with a false start, then at the first cross she had to slow down a little because her competitor Brianne Tutt was riding in front of her. In the first 1.5 laps she was slower compared to the previous fastest time of the American Brittany Bowe. After a quick second lap, she was faster and finished with a time of 1:54.35. Marrit Leenstra of the Netherlands, often fourth in big tournaments, was the first to challenge the time set by Wüst. The Dutch record holder, who trains with the Italian team, was at 1100 meters still below the time of Wüst, but slowed down in the final round and set a time of 1:55.26.

Lotte van Beek of the Netherlands, who won bronze in 2014 in this discipline, had a good start but with an overall time of 1:55.27 she finished just 0.01 behind Leenstra, eventually earning fourth place.

In the last race there were two main favourites, Miho Takagi from Japan who had won all races she started in this discipline in the current season, and American Heather Bergsma-Richardson, the world record holder who had won gold at the 2017 World Single Distances Championships at the Gangneung Oval. They began with a false start, then they went very fast with good intermediate times through to the end. Finally Takagi could not beat the time of Wüst and won silver in a time of 1:54.55.[4]

Records

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Prior to this competition, the existing world, Olympic and track records were as follows.

World record   Heather Richardson-Bergsma (USA) 1:50.85 Salt Lake City, United States 21 November 2015
Olympic record   Jorien ter Mors (NED) 1:53.51 Sochi, Russia 16 February 2014
Track record   Heather Bergsma (USA) 1:54.08 12 February 2017

Results

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The race was held at 21:30.[6]

Rank Pair Lane Name Country Time Time behind Notes
  11 O Ireen Wüst   Netherlands 1:54.35
  14 O Miho Takagi   Japan 1:54.55 +0.20
  12 I Marrit Leenstra   Netherlands 1:55.26 +0.91
4 13 I Lotte van Beek   Netherlands 1:55.27 +0.92
5 7 O Brittany Bowe   United States 1:55.54 +1.19
6 2 O Nao Kodaira   Japan 1:56.11 +1.76
7 10 I Ida Njåtun   Norway 1:56.46 +2.11
8 14 I Heather Bergsma   United States 1:56.74 +2.39
9 7 I Natalia Czerwonka   Poland 1:57.85 +3.50
10 4 O Francesca Lollobrigida   Italy 1:57.94 +3.59
11 8 I Nikola Zdráhalová   Czech Republic 1:58.03 +3.68
12 6 I Gabriele Hirschbichler   Germany 1:58.24 +3.89
13 12 O Katarzyna Bachleda-Curuś   Poland 1:58.53 +4.16
14 5 O Noh Seon-yeong   South Korea 1:58.75 +4.40
15 11 I Brianne Tutt   Canada 1:58.77 +4.42
16 13 O Ayaka Kikuchi   Japan 1:58.92 +4.57
17 8 O Luiza Złotkowska   Poland 1:58.99 +4.64
18 5 I Yekaterina Aydova   Kazakhstan 1:59.05 +4.70
19 9 O Kali Christ   Canada 1:59.42 +5.07
20 10 O Hao Jiachen   China 1:59.58 +5.23
21 1 I Josie Morrison   Canada 1:59.77 +5.42
22 4 I Mia Manganello   United States 1:59.93 +5.58
23 3 I Tian Ruining   China 2:00.29 +5.94
24 9 I Roxanne Dufter   Germany 2:00.33 +5.98
25 2 I Francesca Bettrone   Italy 2:00.43 +6.08
26 6 O Huang Yu-ting   Chinese Taipei 2:18.84 +24.49
3 O Maryna Zuyeva   Belarus DQ

References

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  1. ^ "Venues". www.pyeongchang2018.com/. Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic Organizing Committee for the 2018 Winter Olympics. Archived from the original on 17 February 2018. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
  2. ^ "Schedule". POCOG. Archived from the original on 5 November 2017. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
  3. ^ "Start list" (PDF). Pyongchang2018.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-02-13. Retrieved 2018-02-12.
  4. ^ a b "Magistrale Wüst grijpt goud op 1.500 meter". Archived from the original on 2018-02-13. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
  5. ^ "Wüst in toptien beste wintersporters aller tijden". Archived from the original on 2018-03-13. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
  6. ^ "Final results" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-02-12. Retrieved 2018-02-12.