1,500 metres, Men

As in the 500 m, there were no lack of favorites in this race, as, looking at the season’s World Cup winners, there were four main contenders: Dutch skater Koen Verweij, two-time Olympic 1,000 m Champion Shani Davis, 2013 World Champion Denis Yuskov of Russia and US inline skating convert Joey Mantia. A full list would be hard to replicate, but we’ll mention 2012 World Champion and 1,000 m silver medallist Denny Morrison, 2011 World Champion Håvard Bøkko, defending Olympic champion Mark Tuitert, 2013 World Cup winner Zbigniew Bródka and 1,000 m winner Stefan Groothuis.

The race got serious in pair 13, when defending champion Tuitert put 1:45.42 on the clock, a major attempt to defend his title. It was beaten two pairs later, as Morrison bettered it to 1:45.22, leaving Bøkko behind him. Pair 17 saw Davis take the ice against Bródka. With all eyes on the American, it was the Pole who won that pair. Eager to beat his pairmate, he recorded a typical race that saw him lose 1 second of pace with every full lap, but his 1:45.00 was a new track record. The time remained unassailed until the last pair, which pitted Verweij and Mantia against each other. Mantia was quickly out of contention, but not Verweij. Having started a little slower than Bródka, he closed in on the Pole in his last lap, which would be the fastest closing lap, save for 4th place finisher Yuskov. At the finish line, the clock again stopped at 1:45.00 - a tie for first. Verweij and Bródka looked at the scoreboard in doubt to wait for the verdict on the thousandths of seconds. After nervewrecking moments for both, Verweij was recorded at 1:45.009, exactly 0.003 slower than Bródka. The latter celebrated his country’s first ever Olympic gold in the sport, earned by the smallest ever margin between gold and silver in Olympic speed skating.