1,000 metres, Women

The 2010 Olympic Champion and 2013 World Champion, Wang Meng of China, was not in Sochi due to an ankle fracture. This left the road open for the Koreans, who had dominated the World Cup season with Shim Seok-Hui, Kim A-Lang and Park Seung-Hui.

In the first semi-final Park led coming into the final bend and was to finish first. Second place Valerie Maltais, who had beaten the Olympic Record in the heats, unfortunately had a slide on the final bend, allowing Jessica Smith (USA) to advance to the final, with Jorien ter Mors just failing to beat the American. The second semi-final was to prove controversial and, as with both other individual events, Elise Christie was involved. The early leader was Shim along with Chinese Fan Kexin and Li Jianrou with Christie staying out of trouble at the back. When the pace warmed up on the final few laps, Christie put in a tremendous burst. Going into the last lap Shim led with Christie just having the lead over Li for second place. There was some minor bumping between the two of them on the back straight and, on the final bend, Li fell and took out Christie in the process, so Fan took second place and advanced to the final. Expecting to be advanced to the final Christie was shocked to find that the referee had disqualified her along with Li, so ending a miserable Games for her.

The final was relatively straightforward, with both Koreans skating at the front. For a while Smith was in the mix, but she fell off the pace. As the race moved into the final stages Park led the field and Fan came through into second place to finish just ahead of Shim with Smith some way off the pace.