Speed Skating 2018/Men's mass start

Men's mass start
General information
Sport	Speed Skating 2018
Date	24 February 2018
Competitors	24 athletes
Venue	Gangneung Oval
Conditions
Temperature	17°C / 62.6°F
Length	6400 metres
Medalists
	Lee Seung-hoon
	Bart Swings
	Koen Verweij

The men's mass start of Speed Skating 2018 during the 2018 Winter Olympics was held on 24 February 2018 in the Gangneung Oval. With 24 athletes competing, the event was won by Lee Seung-hoon from South Korea, with Bart Swings from Belgium taking the silver medal and Koen Verweij from Netherlands taking bronze.

Format

The competition exists out of two separate rounds. Both rounds consist of 16 rounds of 400 metres, with the winner of each race receiving 60 points, followed by the best finishers receiving 40 and 20 points. Every four rounds, additional sprints are done, of which the top 3 receive 5, 3, and 1 point, respectively. The athlete with the most points after 16 rounds wins. If multiple speed skaters are tied on the same amount of points, the one with the fastest time is ranked higher.

Preview

Twenty-four athletes qualified for the inaugural edition of the event. Being a very dynamic event, there were several contenders for a medal, including the previous two world champions Joey Mantia (2017) and Lee Seung-hoon (2016), the latter of which was also the current world cup leader and the Asian champion. However, opposition was very high, with Alexis Contin, Olivier Jean, and Vitali Mikhailau, who finished behind Mantia at the world championships in 2017, and Livio Wenger, Bart Swings, and Andrea Giovannini, who were behind Lee in the current world cup standings. Many eyes would also be on the Dutch team, with Koen Verweij and Sven Kramer, the latter of which trying to become the most decorated Dutch athlete at the Olympic Winter Games. As this was the inaugural edition of the event, there were no defending medalists.

The youngest competitor was Chung Jae-won, who was only sixteen years old, almost four years younger than Wang Hongli, and another two years younger than Linus Heidegger. There were also plenty of athletes who had competed at other editions of the Olympic Games, including the oldest athletes Olivier Jean, who competed for the third time at the age of 33, and Konrad Niedzwiedzki, who competed at the fourth time. Sven Kramer had also competed since Torino 2006, with five athletes having had participated since 2010.

Summary

Semifinals

The first semifinal would already see the home favorite and world number one Lee Seung-hoon, and the silver and bronze medalists of the world championships Alexis Contin and Olivier Jean. With the mentality that getting a few points could already be enough to qualify for the final, many skaters tried to conserve energy by going for the early sprints. With a slow page, Koen Verweij skated away and took a strong lead, with Haralds Silovs trying to follow, securing themselves of the first points, and slowing down to let the others catch up immediately afterwards. The sprint of the pack there was won by Brian Hansen, taking his first point. With Contin leading going towards the second sprint, Lee and Jean wanted to show that they were also in form, with all three receiving points, while the number of the four in that sprint Reyon Kay crashing. With more athletes getting points, something needed to be done in the last intermediate sprint to qualify, hence why Viktor Hald Thorup tried to escape the pack to get the full points of the third sprint. Despite attempts to get chased down, Jean finished second in the sprint, maybe securing himself of qualification after receiving only a single point in the second sprint, while Andrea Giovannini passed third. With eight skaters with points, and only eight skaters going through to the final, the competitors with no points or very few points had to do something to qualify. Shane Williamson and Linus Heidegger, who had not sprinted to any points yet, tried to escape the pack after the third sprint, with Giovannini following with only a single point. With over 150 metres separating the three with the rest of the field, they had ensured the points of the final sprint, qualifying for the final. Reyon Kay, who crashed, failed to qualify, just like Fedor Mezentsev, as the only skaters without points. Brian Hansen's third-place intermediate sprint was not enough, and Haralds Silovs lost against Alexis Contin based on a two-tenths-of-a-second time difference.

Semifinal 1 Results
Rank	Nat.	Athlete	Points	Time
1		Linus Heidegger	60	8:20.46
2		Andrea Giovannini	41	8:24.41
3		Shane Williamson	20	8:25.44
4		Viktor Hald Thorup	5	8:34.06
5		Koen Verweij	5	8:44.90
6		Lee Seung-hoon	5	8:45.37
7		Olivier Jean	4	8:42.31
8		Alexis Contin	3	8:28.70
9		Haralds Silovs	3	8:28.93
10		Brian Hansen	1	8:34.47
11		Fedor Mezentsev	0	8:43.26
12		Reyon Kay	0	9:17.99

The second semifinal had athletes such as the reigning world champion Joey Mantia and four-time Olympic champion Sven Kramer, and based on the previous race, it became clear that receiving three points was not necessarily enough to qualify for the final. Ryosuke Tsuchiya was the first one to attempt to break away, but with Mantia and Bart Swings trying to catch him, his escape didn't go far. After the first escape was caught, Konrad Niedzwiedzki tried to increase the speed, with Vitali Mikhailau following him towards the first intermediate sprint. Five skaters succeeded to break away for the first sprint, with Swings, Mantia, and Niedzwiedzki taking the first points. Mikhailau finished just outside of the points, and had to hope that he could try again in a following sprint. Towards the second intermediate sprint, no one really wanted to escape the pack, but the tempo increased when Kramer took the lead, being followed by Chung Jae-won, who took the full points, Sverre Lunde Pedersen, and Livio Wenger, the first of which barely managed to pass third. Wenger, who went through the second intermediate sprint just outside of the points, had to get points and tried to achieve this by escaping from the group of four. With no immediate danger of getting caught by the pack, Wenger took the full points of the third intermediate sprint, with Kramer ensuring himself of qualification. With five athletes yet without points, the pressure for them was high, with four out of five catching up fast. Peter Michael, Stefan Due Schmidt, Mikhailau, and Tsuchiya raced for the ultimate points, eventually won by Michael, with Schmidt and Mikhailau behind him. Tsuchiya finished fourth, leaving him without points. Wang Hongli was the only other one not to qualify for the final without points, while Niedzwiedzki (1 point) and Pedersen (2 points) didn't receive enough points either.

Semifinal 2 Results
Rank	Nat.	Athlete	Points	Time
1		Peter Michael	60	7:55.10
2		Stefan Due Schmidt	40	7:55.22
3		Vitali Mikhailau	20	7:55.25
4		Sven Kramer	6	8:24.51
5		Bart Swings	5	8:13.57
6		Chung Jae-won	5	8:17.02
7		Livio Wenger	5	8:17.17
8		Joey Mantia	3	8:00.54
9		Sverre Lunde Pedersen	2	7:58.65
10		Konrad Niedzwiedzki	1	8:24.73
11		Ryosuke Tsuchiya	0	7:55.77
12		Wang Hongli	0	8:00.97

Final

In the final, it was not anymore about the points in the intermediate sprint, but it was all about the points at the finish line. Sven Kramer tried to determine the tempo of the race in service of his compatriot Koen Verweij, but Bart Swings tried to prevent it. Instead, Vitali Mikhailau, Linus Heidegger, and Livio Wenger tried to escape, sprinting to the first points, but hoping for someone else trying to escape. Viktor Hald Thorup and Wenger also took the points for the second and third intermediate sprints, with the youngster Chung Jae-won leading the charge of the complete group in pursuit of the two. With Kramer trying to escape as lead-out only a few rounds before the finish by using the two escapees as a springboard, a tumultuous finish was inevitable. A group of three, Swings, Lee, and Verweij caught up with Kramer on the bell, the three sprinting for the gold medal. The home favorite Lee took the lead and would not lose it again, followed by Swings and Verweij, becoming the first Olympic champion in the men's mass start. Wenger, Thorup, Heidegger, Mikhailau, and Chung completed the top 8 with their points of the intermediate sprints.

Final Results
Rank	Nat.	Athlete	Points	Time
1		Lee Seung-hoon	60	7:43.97
2		Bart Swings	40	7:44.08
3		Koen Verweij	20	7:44.24
4		Livio Wenger	11	8:13.08
5		Viktor Hald Thorup	8	7:57.10
6		Linus Heidegger	6	7:52.38
7		Vitali Mikhailau	1	7:53.38
8		Chung Jae-won	1	8:32.71
9		Joey Mantia	0	7:45.21
10		Alexis Contin	0	7:45.64
11		Shane Williamson	0	7:46.19
12		Andrea Giovannini	0	7:46.83
13		Stefan Due Schmidt	0	7:47.53
14		Olivier Jean	0	7:49.30
15		Peter Michael	0	7:49.33
16		Sven Kramer	0	8:13.95

Results

Lee Seung-hoon won his fifth medal at the Olympic Games, in his fourth distance in eight years, and his second gold medal, after his win at the 10000 metre in 2010. Bart Swings finally won his first Olympic medal, after several fourth-placed, fifth-placed, and sixth-placed finishes. Koen Verweij won his fourth medal in two editions of the Olympic competition. Livio Wenger, Viktor Hald Thorup, and Linus Heidegger gathered enough points to complete the top 6, but not enough to finish on the podium on their Olympic debut.

Result	Athlete	Nationality
	Lee Seung-hoon	South Korea
	Bart Swings	Belgium
	Koen Verweij	Netherlands
4	Livio Wenger	Switzerland
5	Viktor Hald Thorup	Denmark
6	Linus Heidegger	Austria
7	Vitali Mikhailau	Belarus
8	Chung Jae-won	South Korea
9	Joey Mantia	United States
10	Alexis Contin	France
11	Shane Williamson	Japan
12	Andrea Giovannini	Italy
13	Stefan Due Schmidt	Denmark
14	Olivier Jean	Canada
15	Peter Michael	New Zealand
16	Sven Kramer	Netherlands
17	Haralds Silovs	Latvia
18	Sverre Lunde Pedersen	Norway
19	Konrad Niedzwiedzki	Poland
20	Brian Hansen	United States
21	Ryosuke Tsuchiya	Japan
22	Fedor Mezentsev	Kazakhstan
23	Wang Hongli	China
24	Reyon Kay	New Zealand