Short Track 2018/Women's relay

Women's relay
General information
Sport	Short Track 2018
Date	10-20 February 2018
Competitors	8 teams
Venue	Gangneung Ice Arena
Previous medalists
Gold	South Korea
Silver	Canada
Bronze	Italy
Medalists
	South Korea
	Italy
	Netherlands

The women's relay of Short Track 2018 during the 2018 Winter Olympics was held on 10-20 February 2018 in the Gangneung Ice Arena. With 8 teams competing, the event was won by the team from South Korea, with Italy taking the silver medal and Netherlands taking bronze.

Format

This competition exists out of two rounds, each with four teams. The two teams with the fastest times in each semifinal advance to the final, while the remaining teams advance to the B final, with confirmation of a jury. The fastest team in the final is the winner of the event.

Preview

Eight teams qualified for the event, and South Korea and China were the big favorites for the gold medal. However, behind them, there was plenty of competition, with the Netherlands, the Olympic Athletes from Russia, Canada, and Italy trying to vouch for a medal. The remaining teams Japan and Hungary were still not completely out of it but really had to surprise in order to win a medal at this event.

The eight teams consisted out of a total of thirty-seven athletes, and South Korea selected a very young team, with the youngest competitor Lee Yu-bin being sixteen years old, and their oldest team member Kim A-lang being barely six years older. The only other competitor born after 1 January 2000 was Li Jinyu. The team of the Olympic Athletes from Russia was also full of young talents, with all four skaters between 20 and 22 years old. The oldest competitor was Cecilia Maffei, before Ayuko Ito, Bernadett Heidum, and Andrea Keszler, who were all part of their respective teams at Vancouver 2010. Arianna Fontana, Shim Suk-hee, Zhou Yang had won individual medals at Sochi 2014, and Kim A-lang, Valerie Maltais, Marianne St-Gelais, Lucia Peretti, and Martina Valcepina had earned medals in the relay. Fontana, St-Gelais, and Zhou had also won medals prior to that.

Current Records

Record	Date	Nat.	Name	Time
WR	12 November 2016		Choi Min-jeong	4:04.222
			Kim Geon-hee
			Kim Ji-yoo
			Shim Suk-hee
OR	24 February 2010		Sun Linlin	4:06.610
			Wang Meng
			Zhang Hui
			Zhou Yang

Summary

Semifinals

The first semifinal pitched the home team South Korea, Canada, Hungary, and the Olympic Athletes from Russia against each other. Canada quickly took the lead, with Hungary, South Korea and the Olympic Athletes from Russia behind them, but all action started when a Korean rider crashed and fell behind. Canada tried to accelerate, but the Korean team was able to catch on roughly ten laps later, with another twelve laps to go. Canada continued to lead, however, with the Olympic Athletes from Russia and South Korea tightly knit in a battle for second place. When all four teams got back together again, the home team took the lead seven laps before the finish, with Canada second, and with Hungary third after the Olympic Athletes from Russia crashed. Hungary did get closer towards the two but was never able to catch up before the finish. South Korea managed to finish in a new Olympic record, despite the crash early on.

Heat 1 Results
Rank	Team	Time	Info
1	South Korea	4:06.387	QA, OR
2	Canada	4:07.627	QA
3	Hungary	4:09.555	QB
4	Olympic Athletes from Russia	4:21.973	QB

In the second semifinal, the remaining teams competed against each other, with all teams having chances to qualify for the final. In the race, Italy quickly took the lead, with China, the Netherlands, and Japan behind them. The Dutch team tried to take control of the race but only got to second place. Only when the Italian team dropped their guard a bit were they overtaken by both the Dutch and the Chinese women. Around the same time, the Japanese team fell behind after accidentally being obstructed by another skater. After the Chinese team took the lead, and the Dutch team had problems with one of the hand-overs, it seemed like it was going to be a battle for second place between Italy and the Netherlands, but there were still five laps to go. In a final one-to-one between Arianna Fontana and Suzanne Schulting, the former took the spot in the final. The three teams of China, Italy, and the Netherlands were all faster than the Olympic record that was just set by the Korean team.

Heat 2 Results
Rank	Team	Time	Info
1	China	4:05.315	QA, OR
2	Italy	4:05.918	QA
3	Netherlands	4:05.977	QB
4	Japan	4:12.664	QB

Finals

The final of the event had both of the pre-event favorites South Korea and China, and with Italy and Canada, two other countries that were very strong. If all went well, three out of four teams would win a medal, with only one team losing out. Italy took the front from the start, followed by Canada, China, and South Korea. The Italian team fell behind after a subpar change-over, and China took control of the race. With only 7 laps to go, Canada tried to take control, the race started getting hectic, with a failed change-over from the Korean team, after which one of the Korean riders fell half a lap later, causing a crash of a Canadian skater, who in turn obstructed the Italian team in her fall. With now only China and South Korea in contention for the win, the home team quickly set themselves in front, beating the Chinese team in the final sprint, with Canada eventually finishing third, and Italy fourth. With such a hectic final, penalties were handed out to China and Canada, leaving Italy with the silver medal.

Final Results
Rank	Team	Time	Info
1	South Korea	4:07.361
2	Italy	4:15.901
3	Canada		PEN
4	China		PEN

The B final would have been consolidation for the teams that failed to qualify for the final, but with the Netherlands and the Olympic Athletes from Russia, it featured the third-placed and fourth-placed teams of the world rankings. The Netherlands took a quick lead, followed by Hungary, the Olympic Athletes from Russia, and Japan. In a field that kept stretching out, with the gap between Hungary and the Olympic Athletes from Russia and the gap between the latter and Japan continually increasing, the battle for first place was tight. In a race without any position changes, the Dutch team rebounded from a disappointing semifinal, and won the race in a new world record. Hungary, the team that finished second, was also faster than the now former world record. With the B final happening before the A final, the team of the Netherlands were able to win the bronze medal in retrospect after two penalties in the A final.

B Final Results
Rank	Team	Time	Info
1	Netherlands	4:03.471	WR
2	Hungary	4:03.603
3	Olympic Athletes from Russia	4:08.838
4	Japan	4:13.072

Results

South Korea defended their Olympic title in the relay, with Kim A-lang and Shim Suk-hee being a part of both teams. Shim won her fourth medal at the Olympic Games, after winning medals in three distances at Short Track 2014. Kim won her second (gold) medal, just like Choi Min-jeong, who won the 1500 metre. The Italian team earned a place on the podium again too, winning bronze in 2014 and silver in 2018. That team was most remained intact, except for Elena Viviani who was replaced by Cecilia Maffei. Of that team, Arianna Fontana won her seventh Olympic medal, with Lucia Peretti and Martina Valcepina winning their second. The Netherlands won their first medal in any short track relay, after Yara van Kerkhof had only won the second medal ever for the Netherlands in short track.

Result	Nation
	South Korea
	Italy
	Netherlands
4	Hungary
5	Olympic Athletes from Russia
6	Japan
7	China
8	Canada