Speed Skating 2018/Women's mass start

Women'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
	Nana Takagi
	Kim Bo-reum
	Irene Schouten

The women'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 Nana Takagi from Japan, with Kim Bo-reum from South Korea taking the silver medal and Irene Schouten 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. The crowd favorite was probably Kim Bo-reum, the current world champion, while also winning the silver medal at the world championships in 2016. However, the leader of the World Cup standings over 2018 was Francesca Lollobrigida, and Ivanie Blondin, the world champion of 2016, Nana Takagi and Heather Bergsma, the other medalists at the world championships in 2017, and veteran Claudia Pechstein were definitely not out of the question yet. Other potential outsiders included Francesca Bettrone, Elena Moller Rigas, Irene Schouten, Saskia Alusalu, and Guo Dan.

The youngest competitor was Park Ji-woo, at the age of 20, over a year younger than Ramona Haerdi and Elena Moller Rigas. Park and Haerdi were born after the third Olympic appearance of veteran Claudia Pechstein, who was 26 years older than Park, and 14 years older than Annouk van der Weijden, who made her second Olympic appearance. Despite the Olympic debut of the event, 8 out of 24 athletes had competed at the Olympic Games before, with Pechstein making her seventh appearance, and Heather Bergsma and Luiza Zlotkowska making her third.

Summary

Semifinals

The first of two semifinals already had a huge list of quality skaters, with the reigning world champion Kim Bo-reum, the reigning European champion Francesca Lollobrigida, and the silver medalist of the world championships Nana Takagi. In a bunched start, the first big moves started at the first sprint, when Nana Takagi, Francesca Lollobrigida, Keri Morrison, and Irene Schouten went for the first points, the first three of which took the lead in the race, while Ramona Haerdi crashed. After the sprint, Maryna Zuyeva tried to skate away, but was being followed by Mia Manganello, and quickly had to withdraw that effort. Remaining bunched until the second sprint, Magdalena Czyszczon also crashed in the back of the field, but was able to get back up, while Manganello, Kim, and Elena Moller Rigas started the sprint. Schouten took the outer bend to win the second sprint, in front of Kim and Manganello, who also received their first points. With currently six skaters having points, and eight out of the remaining eleven advancing to the final, several athletes without points still had a lot to do. Czyszczon, Guo Dan, and Zuyeva tried to control the race until the next sprint, but a single lap before the final intermediate sprint, Guo was the only one left. Lollobrigida secured her place in the final, while Guo took three points, and Kim took another one, in front of Moller Rigas, who remained without points. Leading up to the final sprint, Guo, Manganello, Zuyeva, and Rigas took a small lead, but this gap was closed fast. Manganello and Guo tried again, but were once again caught, with Lollobrigida taking the win, followed by Guo and Morrison. Zuyeva finished fourth in the final sprint, and was able to advance to the final without any points, only a hundredth of a second in front of Rigas, who was eliminated.

Semifinal 1 Results
Rank	Nat.	Athlete	Points	Time
1		Francesca Lollobrigida	60	8:54.19
2		Guo Dan	43	8:54.20
3		Keri Morrison	21	8:54.25
4		Irene Schouten	5	8:54.94
5		Nana Takagi	5	8:55.14
6		Kim Bo-reum	4	9:22.21
7		Mia Manganello	1	8:54.52
8		Maryna Zuyeva	0	8:54.38
9		Elena Moller Rigas	0	8:54.39
10		Laura Isabel Gomez Quintero	0	8:54.99
11		Magdalena Czyszczon	0	8:56.66
12		Ramona Haerdi	0	2:49.59

The second semifinal had five-time Olympic champion Claudia Pechstein, team pursuit gold medalist Ayano Sato, and former world champion Ivanie Blondin. With the first semifinal showing that someone could advance with very few points, everyone wanted their share in at least one of the intermediate sprints. After the first full lap, Pechstein dropped back, while Saskia Alusalu started to attack from the back of the pack, with almost everyone responding. Heather Bergsma started to pull for the first sprint, with Li Dan and Park Ji-woo in her tracks, the last of which was caught by Blondin for third place. Pechstein and Alusalu made another move for the second intermediate sprint, now followed by Li, Sato, and Annouk van der Weijden. Blondin pulled for the sprint, and was followed by Sato and Van der Weijden, but slipped, taking the two others with her. Pechstein and Alusalu were the remaining athletes of the leading group, taking the full points of the sprint, with Li being the first of the pack. Francesca Bettrone, who was still without any points, moved to the front of the pack, just like Luiza Zlotkowska, Nikola Zdrahalova, and Park Ji-woo. With all four going for the last intermediate sprint to win some points to advance to the final, Bettrone was the one to pass the line first, securing five points, while Zlotkowska fell after securing her three points, and Park taking third place. Now eight athletes had points, with only eight competitors advancing, which meant that the athletes with less than two points were not safe. Zdrahalova stayed at the front of the field, after which Pechstein took the lead. Van der Weijden started the sprint with a lap to go, followed by Zdrahalova (both still without points) and Li Dan. With Van der Weijden acting as a perfect lead-out for Zdrahalova, the latter took the win in the semifinal, with the former taking second place, and Li finishing third. Park finished fourth and was eliminated with a single point, just like Mikhailava, who finished fifth in the final sprint and was left without points. Ivanie Blondin, who took third place in the first intermediate sprint, was also eliminated.

Semifinal 2 Results
Rank	Nat.	Athlete	Points	Time
1		Nikola Zdrahalova	60	8:32.22
2		Annouk van der Weijden	40	8:32.31
3		Li Dan	24	8:32.49
4		Claudia Pechstein	5	8:35.59
5		Heather Bergsma	5	8:38.19
6		Francesca Bettrone	5	8:38.69
7		Saskia Alusalu	3	8:35.58
8		Luiza Zlotkowska	3	9:08.41
9		Park Ji Woo	1	8:33.43
10		Ivanie Blondin	1	8:53.92
11		Tatsiana Mikhailava	0	8:33.93
12		Ayano Sato	0	4:49.19

Final

In the final, it was not anymore about the points in the intermediate sprints, but it was all about the points at the finish line. Similar to her semifinal, Saskia Alusalu was the first one to attack from the back of the field, this time without anyone following her. As the first Estonian speed skater at the Olympic Games, she took over half a lap, taking the first intermediate sprint. Li Dan and Francesca Lollobrigida were the first of the bunch to cross the finish line for the first immediate sprint, and a similar story unfolded for the second sprint. Alusalu retained her lead, taking the second intermediate sprint as well, with Li Dan and now Luiza Zlotkowska taking the remaining points. Now with Maryna Zuyeva and Francesca Bettrone trying to slowly catch up to Alusalu, the gap was getting smaller and smaller, with Zuyeva taking the three points at the last intermediate sprint, followed by Nikola Zdrahalova and Annouk van der Weijden, with the lead of Alusalu being less than 50 metres with three laps to go. A group of seven skaters pulled away from the pack, including Mia Manganello, Irene Schouten, Kim Bo-reum, Nana Takagi, Lollobrigida, Bettrone, and Guo. Schouten started the sprint with one lap to go, and was followed by Kim, Takagi, and Lollobrigida, until Schouten went wide at the last turn, diminishing her chances for gold. Takagi took the lead and the win, with Kim barely edging out Schouten for silver. Lollobrigida finished fourth in the sprint, but was passed in the final standings by Alusalu, Li, and Zuyeva due to their points of the intermediate sprints. Zdrahalova and Zlotkowska had also won a point in intermediate sprints and would finish in the top 9.

Final Results
Rank	Nat.	Athlete	Points	Time
1		Nana Takagi	60	8:32.87
2		Kim Bo-reum	40	8:32.99
3		Irene Schouten	20	8:33.02
4		Saskia Alusalu	15	8:47.46
5		Li Dan	6	8:50.48
6		Maryna Zuyeva	3	8:41.73
7		Francesca Lollobrigida	1	8:33.30
8		Nikola Zdrahalova	1	8:41.35
9		Luiza Zlotkowska	1	8:47.34
10		Guo Dan	0	8:33.90
11		Heather Bergsma	0	8:35.80
12		Keri Morrison	0	8:41.38
13		Claudia Pechstein	0	8:41.45
14		Annouk van der Weijden	0	8:42.19
15		Mia Manganello	0	8:54.40
16		Francesca Bettrone	0	9:04.82

Results

Nana Takagi won her second gold medal in three days, after winning the team pursuit a few days earlier. Kim Bo-reum, who, like Takagi, had participated in 2014, won her first Olympic medal, while Irene Schouten won a bronze medal at her Olympic debut. Saskia Alusalu and Li Dan gathered enough points to finish in the top 5 at their debuts, while Maryna Zuyeva and Francesca Lollobrigida earned their best result in four events.

Result	Athlete	Nationality
	Nana Takagi	Japan
	Kim Bo-reum	South Korea
	Irene Schouten	Netherlands
4	Saskia Alusalu	Estonia
5	Li Dan	China
6	Maryna Zuyeva	Belarus
7	Francesca Lollobrigida	Italy
8	Nikola Zdrahalova	Czech Republic
9	Luiza Zlotkowska	Poland
10	Guo Dan	China
11	Heather Bergsma	United States
12	Keri Morrison	Canada
13	Claudia Pechstein	Germany
14	Annouk van der Weijden	Netherlands
15	Mia Manganello	United States
16	Francesca Bettrone	Italy
17	Park Ji Woo	South Korea
18	Elena Moller Rigas	Denmark
19	Ivanie Blondin	Canada
20	Laura Isabel Gomez Quintero	Colombia
21	Tatsiana Mikhailava	Belarus
22	Magdalena Czyszczon	Poland
23	Ayano Sato	Japan
24	Ramona Haerdi	Switzerland