For 4,200 meters, it looked as if the National Speed Skating Oval would play host to one of the biggest upsets of the Olympics. But then, in a few strides, the potential upset reverted to the inevitable.
Nils van der Poel of Sweden won the men’s 5,000-meter race in an Olympic record time Sunday, continuing a superlative season in which he has won every distance race he has entered. His victory produced Sweden’s first speedskating Olympic medal since the 1988 Games.
Van der Poel has gotten used to winning World Cup races by two or even five seconds, an eternity in a sport routinely decided by hundredths of a second.