1,500 metres, Men

Favorites were a dime a dozen in the 1500 m. Over the past years, three different skaters had won the world title: Erben Wennemars, Shani Davis and Rune Stordal (who didn’t qualify for Torino). Two other skaters had won the season World Cups in the same years: Mark Tuitert (not qualified either) and Yevgeny Lalenkov. Adding to the list, 5,000 m champion Chad Hedrick had bettered the world record earlier in the season.

Ahead of these favorites, in the 17th pair, two outsiders started who had both won World Cup races in the first part of the season. Simon Kuipers had been ill since, and only qualified for the Games in a skate-off, while Enrico Fabris had won the team pursuit days before the competition. Kuipers comfortably led the Italian for most of the race, but Fabris showed an unusually small decline in his lap times (26.6-27.1-27.7) to catch the Dutchman in the last lap, clocking 1:45.97 to beat his own pre-Olympic track record. None of the remaining skaters could match Fabris’s steady race, although some came close. Shani Davis had a 1.3-second lead over the Italian, yet finished at 1:46.13. His compatriot Hedrick was not far behind, with 1:46.22. Fabris’s gold medal made him the most successful male skater at the Olympics, with two golds and a bronze.