Nils van der Poel gives Sweden the first skating gold since 1988
Nils van der Poel gave Sweden his first Olympic medal since 1988, and made a fantastic comeback to win gold in the 5,000 meters on Sunday at the Games in Beijing.
Van der Poel was a big favorite who came into the event as the reigning world champion, with an undefeated record in the distance events on the season’s World Cup course.
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The 25-year-old lived up to the hype in the 12 1/2 lap race at the Ice Ribbon Oval, setting the pace at the end to beat Patrick Roest of the Netherlands with an Olympic record of 6 minutes, 8.84 seconds.
Roest had skated about an hour earlier in the sixth of 10 pairs, and first broke the Olympic mark on 6.09.31.
Then he watched nervously in the gym when one couple after another failed to take down his time.
It looked as if van der Poel in the last group would also fall short, as he fell 2 seconds behind Roest’s pace with only three laps left.
Then the Swede kicked in another gear.
Nils van der Poel from Sweden celebrates after winning the gold medal and set an Olympic record in the men’s 5,000 meters at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Sunday, February 6, 2022, in Beijing.
(AP Photo / Ashley Landis)
He captivated the sparse audience by cutting Roest’s time for each step, his development being marked in real time on the scoreboard.
It turned out that van der Poel had just enough time to take the gold. His last lap was a stinging 28.97 – his second fastest during the strenuous race.
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Van der Poel raised his arms when he saw the victory time. Roest, who watched the race on a video screen, moaned and dropped his head in disbelief, his coach gathered to comfort him.
The bronze went to Hallgeir Engebraaten from Norway in 6: 09.88.
Van der Poel became the first Swedish skater to win a medal since Tomas Gustafson won a pair of golds in the 5,000 and 10,000 at the Calgary Games 34 years ago.
Since then, the Swedes had not finished higher than seventh in an Olympic race.
Sven Kramer’s hunt for a fourth straight ice skating gold of 5,000 ended quickly.
The 35-year-old Dutchman skated in the first pair of the day and finished in 6: 17.04 – more than 7 seconds from his gold medal winning time at the Pyeongchang Games and only good enough for the ninth.
Kramer was the first male skater to win the same competition at three Olympic Games in a row, but he is no longer the world’s dominant long-distance artist.
Kramer plans to retire after the Beijing Games, but he still has a couple of events left. He will also compete in the mass start and the team persecution.
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No matter what, Kramer is already confident of leaving the sport as the most decorated male skater in Olympic history, with nine medals in the last four games, including four golds.
Emery Lehman and Ethan Cepuran from the USA finished 16th (6: 21.80) and 17th (6: 25.97) respectively.
Lehman filled in for teammate Casey Dawson, who has been stuck in the US after testing positive for COVID-19 several weeks ago.
Dawson is still hoping to be ready in time to come to Beijing for next week’s team hunt