Medals update: Gao Tingyu wins men's 500m speed skating gold on home ice in new Olympic record
The People's Republic of China skater adds a spectacular gold to the bronze he won at PyeongChang 2018, with Republic of Korea's Cha Min Kyu taking silver and Japan's Morishige Wataru the bronze.
Speed Skating
Hosts People's Republic of China have something special to celebrate today, as speed skater Gao Tingyu set a blazing pace to claim the men's Beijing 2022 500m gold medal and with it a new Olympic record.
Gao's mark of 34.32 was 0.09 seconds faster than the record set by Norway's Håvard Holmefjord Lorentzen in PyeongChang 2018, and was enough to seal an impressive gold ahead of Republic of Korea's Cha Min Kyu (34.39) and Japan's Morishige Wataru (34.49).
In the fastest 500m race in Olympic history, both the first and second-place finishers went under the previous Olympic record. However, it was Gao who stood tallest, winning gold and the right to call himself Olympic champion.
At the last Olympic Winter Games, Gao became the first athlete from the People's Republic of China to win an Olympic speed skating medal. Now he has made history once again as the new Olympic champion.
After the competition, Gao spoke about the self-belief that drove him forward on his quest to win a gold medal, as he moved up from the third step on the podium at PyeongChang 2018 to the top step at Beijing 2022.
“I just want to say that I made it, I said four years ago that I will win gold in Beijing 2022, and today I made it,” he said.
When asked whether he had contemplated breaking the Olympic record before his historic race, the Chinese champion pointed to the quality you need to display in order to succeed at this level.
"How can you win the gold medal at this venue without breaking an Olympic world record?"
Republic of Korea's Cha, who won silver in the competition in a replica of his result from PyeongChang 2018 and came less than a tenth of a second away from winning gold, looked back on the event with a mixture of happiness and regret.
"I was very close to winning. It’s a pity I didn’t win. But still, this has been my best performance so far. I felt quite happy.
“There were parts where I could have done better, but I am really happy about this result," he said.