Sander Eitrem of Norway adds a speedskating 5,000 meters Olympic gold to his world record
MILAN (AP) — Sander Eitrem put aside an awkward stumble at the start to win a gold medal for Norway in the men’s speedskating 5,000 meters at the Milan Cortina Games on Sunday, adding an Olympic record time to the world mark he set last month.
Eitrem, who turns 24 on Thursday, finished in 6 minutes, 3.95 seconds, which was good enough to be 5.27 seconds faster than the previous leader, Riccardo Lorello of Italy, and nearly 6 seconds better than the old Olympic standard.
Metodej Jilek, a 19-year-old Czech skater who was in Eitrem’s heat, wound up with the silver, 2.53 seconds off the pace. Lorello got the bronze.
It was a remarkable recovery after about as bad of a beginning as possible by Eitrem, who lost his balance a bit during his first few strides. He lost about a quarter of a second to Lorello by the initial checkpoint, but was ahead after 1,400 meters and just kept adding to that advantage.
At a World Cup race in Germany on Jan. 24, Eitrem became the first man in speedskating history to complete the 5,000 in under 6 minutes. He didn’t approach that on Sunday, but it didn’t matter. His first Olympic race ended with him shaking his right fist, then raising aloft, to celebrate being in first place.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance and family arrived in the stands halfway through the day’s competition, shortly before American Casey Dawson raced. Dawson ended up in eighth place, four years after being forced to miss the 5,000 at the Beijing Olympics because he tested positive for COVID-19.
Vance mouthed “Oh, wow,” after Eitrem’s time was shown on the video boards at the arena.
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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics