5,000 metres, Men

The gold and silver medalists from 1960 were back, Viktor Kosichkin and Knut Johannesen, and they were still considered formidable. Johannesen had won the distance at the recent 1964 European Championships, while Kosichkin was the 1962 World All-Around Champion and won the distance, and the all-around, at the 1961 Europeans. The world record holder was Sweden’s Jonny Nilsson, with 7:34.3 set in February 1963 at Karuizawa, Japan, and he was also considered a threat as he had won the 1963 World Championships, and won the 5K in the process.

In the third pair, lightly considered Austrian Hermann Strutz broke the Olympic record with 7:48.3 to take the early lead. In the next pair, Kosichkin recorded 7:45.8 to move ahead. The fifth pair had Norway’s Per Ivar Moe, who came across in 7:38.6, the second fastest time ever recorded. Jonny Nilsson was up in the seventh pair but his 7:48.4 would earn him only sixth place. In the 14th pair Johannesen was well behind Moe’s pace at 3,000 metres but came on strongly to finish in 7:48.7 – or that was the time flashed on the scoreboard. But a few seconds later, it was changed to Johannesen’s official time of 7:38.4, which earned him the gold medal. The Norwegian medal sweep was the first ever in men’s Olympic speed skating, and only the second at that time, following a Soviet sweep in the women’s 500 metres only six days before. On Austrian television, Strutz was initially announced as the silver medalist. After the error was corrected a viewer from Vienna sent a valuable gold coin to the television station, who presented it to Strutz as consolation.