Men’s speedskating marquee event, the 1,000-meter, takes place bright and early Thursday. Here’s how you can watch online or by live stream.
Before we get into the chaos of speedskating’s shiny new event (the mass start), there remains one major point of business for men’s speedskating: the 1,000-meter.
The favorites in the race are Dutch skaters Kjeld Nuis and Kai Verbij (gold and silver) and Vince De Haitre of Canada for bronze. Of course, stateside all eyes will be on speedskating legend Shani Davis.
Davis first won the 1,000-meter at the Torino 2006 Winter Olympics and then again in 2010, becoming the first man to win back-to-back gold medals in the event. His world record, set in 2009, still stands. (He also went back-to-back with silvers in the 1,500-meter. In Sochi in 2014, Davis failed to medal, finishing at No. 8. In Pyeongchang, Davis has been fully focused on proving himself on the ice after a minor controversy arose when he tweeted his displeasure with the U.S. delegation’s decision to decide the flag bearer by a coin toss. Of course, Davis truly has nothing left to prove at his fifth Winter Olympics. (Nor has he ever cared much how the media treats or mistreats him.) A pioneer and all-time great in the sport, his legacy is unimpeachable, but another medal wouldn’t hurt.
He finished 19 in the 1,500-meters in Pyeongchang, but quickly noted that it wasn’t his best event. (It was also much closer to the flag controversy, whether he chooses to acknowledge as a distraction or not.) According to the Chicago Tribune, Davis’ hometown paper, he still wants to win — he placed second at the U.S. qualifiers and took silver at the World Cup in the 2016-17 season.
USA speedskating is in rough shape — the women’s team pursuit bronze medal was the first medal of any kind in the discipline in 16 years — and Davis isn’t expected to reach the podium. Still, crazier things have happened (see: Ledecka, Ester) and it would be an awfully nice way to end the Olympics.
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Here’s how you can watch Olympic men’s 1000-meter medal race online.
Date: Friday, Feb. 23
Time: 5:00 a.m. ET
Location: Pyeongchang, South Korea
Venue: Gangneung Oval
Live Stream: NBC Olympics, FuboTV
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