Speed Skating 2018/Men's 10000 metre

Men's 10000 metre
General information
Sport	Speed Skating 2018
Date	15 February 2018
Competitors	12 athletes
Venue	Gangneung Oval
Previous medalists
Gold	Jorrit Bergsma
Silver	Sven Kramer
Bronze	Bob de Jong
Conditions
Temperature	16.5°C / 61.7°F
Length	10000 metres
Medalists
	Ted-Jan Bloemen
	Jorrit Bergsma
	Nicola Tumolero

The men's 10000 metre of Speed Skating 2018 during the 2018 Winter Olympics was held on 15 February 2018 in the Gangneung Oval. With 12 athletes competing, the event was won by Ted-Jan Bloemen from Canada, with Jorrit Bergsma from Netherlands taking the silver medal and Nicola Tumolero from Italy taking bronze.

Format

The competition exists out of six head-to-head races of 10000 metres. The competitor with the fastest time is the winner.

Preview

Twelve athletes qualified for the event, and the man to look out for was Sven Kramer. Despite having won several prizes in the 5000 metres and the 10000 metres, he has never been able to win the gold medal at the Olympic 10000 metres. His biggest competitors were Ted-Jan Bloemen, who was the world record holder, and Jorrit Bergsma, who was able to beat him to gold fear years before. Other medal contenders and outsiders included Lee Seung-hoon (Olympic champion of 2010), Jordan Belchos and Patrick Beckert.

The three oldest participants were Jorrit Bergsma, Sven Kramer, and Ted-Jan Bloemen, holders of the Olympic record, track record, and world record, respectively. The youngest competitors were Ryosuke Tsuchiya and Nicola Tumolero, who made their Olympic debut at the age of 24. Kramer and Havard Bokko had competed since Torino 2006, making them the veterans of the bunch, even though Lee Seung-hoon and Jorrit Bergsma had won medals in this event before, as well.

Current Records

Record	Date	Nat.	Name	Time
WR	21 November 2015		Ted-Jan Bloemen	12:36.30
OR	18 February 2014		Jorrit Bergsma	12:44.45
TR	11 February 2017		Sven Kramer	12:38.89

Results

The first speed skater to set a time below thirteen minutes was Jordan Belchos in the second pairing. Being four seconds faster than Bart Swings and almost twelve seconds faster than Ryosuke Tsuchiya, who raced in the first pairing, and almost twenty seconds faster than veteran Havard Bokko proved the big differences, and the potential to set a good time by the competitors. In the third pairing, local hero Lee Seung-hoon was able to race to his fastest time in three editions of the Winter Olympics, while Moritz Geisreiter finished between Swings and Tsuchiya. The three title contenders were assigned to different pairings, with titleholder Jorrit Bergsma appearing first, against Davide Ghiotto. Bergsma set a new Olympic record, with a good chance on a medal, while Ghiotto finished last, over 45 seconds after Bergsma. The penultimate pairing saw world record holder Ted-Jan Bloemen against Nicola Tumolero. Tumolero was able to keep up with Bloemen, and with the latter setting a new Olympic record, the Italian was able to set a time a second faster than Lee Seung-hoon, settling in third place before the last race. In the last race, after 6000 metres, the difference between Bloemen and Sven Kramer was only four seconds, but while Bloemen was able to retain his split times in the previous race, Kramer was not, and the latter lost a lot of time, finishing outside the thirteen minutes. His competitor Patrick Beckert had a slower start, but he was almost able to catch up on his lost time, finishing within a second from Kramer in seventh place, with Kramer finishing sixth.

Ted-Jan Bloemen won his second Olympic medal in the same number of events at his Olympic debut, after he won the silver medal in the 5000 metre four days prior. Skating to a new Olympic record, he left the defending champion Jorrit Bergsma behind him, who completed his trio of medals in a new personal record. Nicola Tumolero won his first medal at his Olympic debut in a new personal record. Lee Seung-hoon, who won the gold medal in 2010 and finished fourth in the prior edition, finished fourth once again in a new national record. Jordan Belchos fifth in his first Olympic event in a personal record, leaving Sven Kramer behind him.

Result	Athlete	Nationality	Time
	Ted-Jan Bloemen	Canada	12:39.77	OR
	Jorrit Bergsma	Netherlands	12:41.98	PR
	Nicola Tumolero	Italy	12:54.32	PR
4	Lee Seung-hoon	South Korea	12:55.54	NR
5	Jordan Belchos	Canada	12:59.51	PR
6	Sven Kramer	Netherlands	13:01.02
7	Patrick Beckert	Germany	13:01.94
8	Bart Swings	Belgium	13:03.53
9	Moritz Geisreiter	Germany	13:06.35
10	Ryosuke Tsuchiya	Japan	13:10.31	NR
11	Havard Bokko	Norway	13:17.47
12	Davide Ghiotto	Italy	13:27.09