5,000 metres, Women

After winning the 3,000 m, Italy’s Francesca Lollobrigida was also favoured for the 5,000 m, also being the defending World Champion. However, her World title had been a bit of a surprise and was mostly due to Norway’s Ragne Wiklund collapsing in the final laps. Wiklund had also won the season’s only international 5,000 m at the Heerenveen World Cup, ahead of Canada’s Isabelle Weidemann, silver medalist in 2022 and Joy Beune. Beune had also been the World Champion in 2024, but she had failed to qualify at the Dutch Olympic trials. In her stead, 2024 and 2025 World Championship medalist Merel Conijn was also considered a medal contender.

The race was opened by Marijke Groenewoud, replacing the ill Bente Kerkhoff with 6:58.33, which was improved in the next race by Maryna Zuyeva to 6:57.70. After the ice-preparation, Conijn faced Sandrine Tas of Belgium. Tas had placed fourth at the 5k World Cup and had won a 3,000 m medal at the European Championships. Tas and Conijn raced together until the 3,000 m mark, when the Belgian appeared to pull away, opening up a 1-second gap. But Conijn, known for her fast final laps drew closer and made up the difference in the final straight, finishing just 0.2 seconds ahead of Tas: 6:46.27 vs. 6:46.47. Wiklund then went all out to attack Conijn’s time, leading by over three seconds with three laps to go. But like her 2025 World Championship race, she faded in the final laps, and finished in 6:46.34, right between Tas and Conijn. In the final race, Lollobrigida faced the 2010 and 2014 champion, Martina Sáblíková. The Czech had hoped to close out her career with a great performance, but having barely recovered from a fever that already caused her to miss the 3,000 m, she managed to hold on for only a few laps. Lollobrigida meanwhile started on par with Wiklund’s pace, but started to slow at the halfway point, losing terrain to Conijn. At the bell, she was slower than Wiklund but faster than Tas and Conijn. Sprinting all out in the final lap, she narrowly held on to that lead will overtaking Wiklund, finishing in 6:46.17, leaving the top four within 0.30 seconds. The 0.10 gap between gold and silver was the smallest since 1998, when it has been 0.04 seconds.

For Lollobrigida it was her fourth Olympic medal and second gold, while Wiklund became the first Norwegian woman to win more than one Olympic speed skating medal. Tas’ fourth place - only 0.13 from the podium - was the best ever recorded by a Belgian woman.