1,000 metres, Men

South Korean skaters had won this event at the past four World Championships, with An Hyeon-Su winning in 2006 and 2007, and Lee Ho-Seok in 2008 and 2009. An was not competing in Vancouver, but Lee was. He was joined by two compatriots, Lee Jeong-Su, the 2006 World Junior Champion and Seong Si-Baek, who had dramatically crashed with Lee Ho-Seok in the final. But the Koreans would face tough competition from Apolo Anton Ohno and the Canadian Hamelin brothers, Charles and François .

In the first semi-final, the two Lees proceeded easily, while François Hamelin also made the final, following disqualification of J. R. Celski. The second semi-final heat saw a very close finish, with the first three finishing within 0.035 seconds - about a skate’s length. Ohno won the heat, followed by Charles Hamelin, who edged out Seong by just 0.006. In the final, the lead was initially taken by the two Canadian brothers, but they were soon surpassed by the two Koreans. Lee Ho-Seok was in front at the bell, but Lee Jeong-Su passed him on the inside on the back straight. Because of a wide final curve, Lee Ho-Seok was able to gain back a bit of ground in the final metres, but not enough to deny his compatriot victory. Behind the two Koreans, Ohno held off the Canadians to take the bronze.

A few months after Lee Jeong-Su’s two gold medals in Vancouver, he was convicted in a match-fixing scandal. Together with fellow Olympian Gwak Yun-Gi and their coach Jeon Jae-Mok, Lee was accused of having withdrawn during the March national team tryouts in favour of Gwak. The two skaters received an unusually severe punishment, as they were banished from competition until April 2013. Jeon was permanently expelled from coaching the national team.