Speed Skating 2018/Women's 1000 metre

Women's 1000 metre
General information
Sport	Speed Skating 2018
Date	14 February 2018
Competitors	31 athletes
Venue	Gangneung Oval
Previous medalists
Gold	Zhang Hong
Silver	Ireen Wust
Bronze	Margot Boer
Conditions
Temperature	15°C / 59°F
Length	1000 metres
Medalists
	Jorien ter Mors
	Nao Kodaira
	Miho Takagi

The women's 1000 metre of Speed Skating 2018 during the 2018 Winter Olympics was held on 14 February 2018 in the Gangneung Oval. With 31 athletes competing, the event was won by Jorien ter Mors from Netherlands, with Nao Kodaira from Japan taking the silver medal and Miho Takagi from Japan taking bronze.

Format

The competition exists out of sixteen head-to-head races of 1000 metres. The competitor with the fastest time is the winner.

Preview

Thirty-one athletes qualified for the event, with Nao Kodaira as one of the big favorites as the reigning world champion, world record holder, and the world-leading time of 2018. Miho Takagi, her compatriot, was a real contender to be reckoned with, having the second-fastest time of the year, and after the women's 3000 metres, the men's 5000 metres, the women's 1500 metres, and the men's 1500 metres, which were all won by the Netherlands, it was the first time where the country was not among the main favorites for the event. However, the Dutch skaters were still considered serious medal contenders, especially with Ireen Wust, who won the 1500 metres, and Jorien ter Mors, who won the 1500 metres in 2014. Other serious medal contenders were Brittany Bowe, the former world record holder, Vanessa Herzog, Heather Bergsma, and Marrit Leenstra.

Current Records

Record	Date	Nat.	Name	Time
WR	10 December 2017		Nao Kodaira	1:12.09
OR	17 February 2002		Chris Witty	1:13.83
TR	11 February 2017		Heather Bergsma	1:13.94

Results

After three pairs without many groundbreaking performances, the first medal contender to set a time was Ireen Wust in the fourth pairing. As the first race with a false start, Wust set a time that was over a second faster than Nikola Zdrahalova, who set a reasonable time in the second pair, and almost three seconds faster than Francesca Bettrone. Even though the time of Wust was not spectacular, though setting her season's best time, it would not be beaten until far in the second half of the competition, when her compatriot Jorien ter Mors was almost two seconds faster in the twelfth pair. In the meantime, skaters like veterans Ida Njatun and Yekaterina Aydova and former Olympic champion Zhang Hong were not able to reach Wust's time. In the twelfth pair, with the start of some of the main medal contenders, Ter Mors edged out Brittany Bowe in a new Olympic record, setting a harsh standard for the rest of the field. Bowe finished within a second of Ter Mors, setting another time to be reckoned with. Two pairs later, with one of the big favorites Miho Takagi against sprint specialist Karolina Erbanova, it was Takagi who was only the second skater to finish within 1:14.00, taking second place behind Ter Mors, while Erbanova settled with a time between Bowe and Wust. In the next pair, top favorite Nao Kodaira against Vanessa Herzog, the former was also not able to reach the time of Ter Mors, despite being a hundredth of a second faster than the former Olympic record. With Japan currently on a provisional silver and bronze medal, there was only a single pair to go, Marrit Leenstra against Heather Bergsma, both of whom were determined to win their first (individual) medals. In a very close race, neither was really able to break any boundaries, finishing over a second behind Ter Mors and Kodaira. Ter Mors took a slightly surprise victory, in front of the Japanese pre-event favorites Kodaira and Takagi. Bowe and Herzog took fourth and fifth place within a second, while Leenstra, Erbanova, and Bergsma finished within the top 8. Wust and Njatun were the only other skaters to finish within 2 seconds.

Jorien ter Mors won her third Olympic title, after the 1500 metres and the team pursuit in 2014. Nao Kodaira won her second silver medal in eight years, having finished second in the team pursuit in Vancouver. Miho Takagi also won her second Olympic medal, after winning the bronze medal in the 1500 metres two days earlier. Brittany Bowe earned the best result of an American speed skater in eight years, while Vanessa Herzog finished in the top 5 for the first time in her Olympic career.

Result	Athlete	Nationality	Time
	Jorien ter Mors	Netherlands	1:13.56	OR
	Nao Kodaira	Japan	1:13.82
	Miho Takagi	Japan	1:13.98
4	Brittany Bowe	United States	1:14.36
5	Vanessa Herzog	Austria	1:14.47
6	Marrit Leenstra	Netherlands	1:14.85
7	Karolina Erbanova	Czech Republic	1:14.95
8	Heather Bergsma	United States	1:15.15
9	Ireen Wust	Netherlands	1:15.32
10	Ida Njatun	Norway	1:15.43
11	Zhang Hong	China	1:15.67
12	Natalia Czerwonka	Poland	1:15.77
13	Arisa Go	Japan	1:15.84
14	Hege Bokko	Norway	1:15.98
15	Gabriele Hirschbichler	Germany	1:16.03
16	Park Seung-hi	South Korea	1:16.11
17	Yu Jing	China	1:16.361
18	Kim Hyun-yung	South Korea	1:16.366
19	Nikola Zdrahalova	Czech Republic	1:16.43
20	Huang Yu-ting	Chinese Taipei	1:16.44
21	Tian Ruining	China	1:16.69
22	Angelina Golikova	Olympic Athletes from Russia	1:16.85
23	Kaylin Irvine	Canada	1:16.90
24	Yekaterina Aydova	Kazakhstan	1:17.09
25	Heather McLean	Canada	1:17.25
26	Judith Dannhauer	Germany	1:17.41
27	Francesca Bettrone	Italy	1:17.83
28	Jerica Tandiman	United States	1:18.02
29	Karolina Bosiek	Poland	1:18.53
30	Yvonne Daldossi	Italy	1:19.33
31	Michelle Uhrig	Germany	1:20.81