Norway's Sander Eitrem, who in late January became the first man to skate the 5000m in under six minutes, added another record to his growing list of accomplishments, clipping nearly five seconds off the Olympic record Swedish speed skating giant Nils van der Poel set four years earlier (6 minutes, 8.84 seconds) despite slipping as he left the start line. The 23-year-old clocked 6:03.95.

He entered Sunday's race as the world No. 2 in the long distances, 2nd only to Czechia's Metodej Jilek, who took silver behind Eitrem, with whom he was paired. Italy's Riccardo Lorello, a heavy underdog in the event with just one appearance in an A Group World Cup race this season, finished in 3rd.

All three medalists made their Olympic debuts in the race.

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Eitrem emerged as a fierce long distance contender two seasons ago, when he took 5000m bronze at both the 2024 World Championships and 2024 European Championships. A year later, he claimed his first world title in the event.

His win marks the 10th time a Norwegian has topped an Olympic 5000m podium — more than any other nation — but only the first time since 1994. Norwegians Sverre Lunde Pedersen (2018) and Hallgeir Engebraaten (2022) skated to bronze at the last two Games.

"I feel super happy because of the pressure the last couple of days," Eitrem told the media after his race. "There was a lot of pressure, and I managed to pull it off."

Ahead of Sunday's competition, Eitrem told the ISU he felt like there was a target on his back because of his world record-setting race Jan. 24. Before then, he said, he felt like an underdog. That was a much more comfortable position to be in entering the Olympics.

His goal going into the event Sunday was to relieve some of that mental pressure and "keep it simple."

"The key was to be relaxed and think about it as a normal race," Eitrem said. "If I do that, I can skate fast," 

Unsurprisingly, winter sports giant Norway now has the most gold medals of any other country with three. Lorello's bronze gives host nation Italy seven total prizes, one more than Norway's six. 

Jilek's 2nd-place finish extends a breakout 2025-26 season which began with an unofficial world record in the 3000m (rendered unofficial because there were no ISU officials present at the race). He then landed on the podium in four of the five long distance races contested on the World Cup circuit this season, taking gold once apiece in the 5000m and 10,000m en route to his first career overall World Cup title.

At 19 years old, Jilek now stands as the only Czechian man to earn a speed skating medal in any event — women's long distance specialist Martina Sablikova has earned seven of Czechia's eight total speed skating medals — and the youngest 5000m medalist of any kind on the Olympic level. His final time of 6:06.480 also sat under van der Poel's previous Olympic record.

"It was a really hard race," Jilek said. "Skating against Sander Eitrem was really tough, but I am also happy that we were in the same pair. We both helped each other to skate fast and to do some good times."

The Dutch missed the podium for the first time since the 1984 Sarajevo Games, ending a run of 10-straight Games with at least one 5000m medal.

Prior to Sunday's race, the Netherlands had earned five of the last seven Olympic golds and 15 of the last 30 medals overall. In 2014, they swept the podium. The country's highest-ranked skater was Chris Huizinga, who took 7th ahead of American Casey Dawson. 

Dawson, the only American to qualify for the men's long distances, qualified for the 5000m at the Beijing Games but missed the race due to a positive COVID-19 test that delayed his travel. He is next expected to compete in the 10,000m Feb. 13.

Competition continues Monday, Feb. 9 with the women's 1000m, where world record holder Brittany Bowe and reigning 500m Olympic champion Erin Jackson will make their Olympic debuts in Milan. Skaters are scheduled to take the ice at 11:30 a.m. E.T.