The 2018 champion, Esmee Visser, did not qualify for the Olympics. The 2018 silver medalist, Sáblíková, and the bronze medalist, Natalya Voronina, the world record holder at the start of the Olympics, both qualified. Schouten was the 2021 World Single Distances champion at the 5000 m distance. Voronina and Carlijn Achtereekte were the silver and bronze medalist, respectively. Weidemann was leading the 2021–22 ISU World Cup in long distances with three races completed before the Olympics, followed by Ragne Wiklund, Schouten, and Francesca Lollobrigida. Schouten skated the season best time, 6:45.69 in Heerenveen on 31 October 2021.[2]
Maryna Zuyeva won the first pair and set the lead. Her time was better than the track record, but still 16 seconds above the Olympic record. Voronina has improved her time in pair 3 by 6 seconds. In pair 4, Sáblíková took the lead, improving Voronina's time by 7 seconds, with two pairs to go. Weidemann in pair 5 further improved Sáblíková's time by 2 seconds, but skated still slower than the Olympic record. In the last pair Schouten set a new Olympic record, thereby winning the event.
A total of 12 entry quotas were available for the event, with a maximum of two athletes per NOC. The first eight athletes qualified through their performance at the 2021–22 ISU Speed Skating World Cup, while the last four earned quotas by having the best times among athletes not already qualified. A country could only earn the maximum two spots through the World Cup rankings.[3]
The qualification time for the event (7:20.00 or 4:08.00 (3000 m)) was released on 1 July 2021, and was unchanged from 2018.[4] Skaters had the time period of 1 July 2021 to 16 January 2022 to achieve qualification times at valid International Skating Union (ISU) events.[4]
Records
Prior to this competition, the existing world, Olympic and track records were as follows.
