Zhang Hong gave China their first ever gold medal in surprising and impressive fashion. Seen as a rank outsider coming into the event, she skated a dominating race that not even the Dutch contingent could top. Hong skated in the 7th pair against Canadian Christine Nesbitt and flew around the track in 1:14.02. Nesbitt finished in 1:15.62 or 1.60 seconds slower than Hong. For the next 11 pairings, Hong waited with bated breath as top skater after top skater failed to best her time. Ireen Wust of the Netherlands ended up finishing 2nd in 1:14.69, 0.67 seconds behind Hong. Fellow Dutchwoman Margot Boer finished 3rd in 1:14.90 and 0.88 seconds behind Hong.
Hong's performance was the best in the Ladies' 1000 meters event since the 1994 Winter Olympics held in Lillehammer, Norway. That year, American Bonnie Blair crushed the runner up by 1.38 seconds.
For the Netherlands, it gave both skaters their 2nd medals of these games. Ireen Wust won the Gold medal in the Ladies' 3000 meters final while Margot Boer took the Bronze medal in the Ladies' 500 meters final. The Dutch have won 12 of the 18 medals awarded in the Speed Track discipline at the Olympics. With two more medals, the Dutch will set an Olympic record for most medals won at a single Olympics in Speed Skating. That record will almost surely be broken with four events left. Of note, the Dutch skaters finished 2nd, 3rd, 5th (Lotte Van Beek), and 6th (Marrit Leenstra) in the Ladies' 1000 meters event.
Meanwhile, the United States still have not found their footing in Sochi. Both Heather Richardson and Brittany Bowe were expected to contend for the Gold medal but neither failed to live up to the expectations. Richardson finished 7th in a time of 1:15.23 and 1.21 seconds behind Hong. Bowe, the Ladies' world record holder at 1000 meters, failed to match Ireen Wust in their pairing and finished 8th in 1:15.47. The two other American skaters were Sugar Todd and Kelly Gunther who finished 32nd and 33rd, respectively.
Russia nearly saw their own in Olga Fatkulina win her 2nd medal of the Olympics after her silver in the Ladies' 500 meters. Fatkulina was 3rd overall in 1:15.08 after the 16th pairing, but Wust's performance in the subsequent pairing knocked her off the podium. Yekaterina Shikhova, Yulia Skokova, and Yekaterina Lobysheva failed to make an impact finishing 15th, 16th, and 20th, respectively.