Joey Mantia was right there to medal.
The finish line was within sight and he was in position, his skate millimeters ahead of Lee Seung Hoon. Then, at the final moment, it all changed.
The American speedskater felt contact on his right arm, and saw Lee’s skate ahead of his. He placed fourth by by one one-hundredth of second after finishing in 7:47.20. Lee’s Republic of Korea teammate Jae Won Chung was second in 7:47/18 and Belgium’s Bart Swings (7:47.11) took gold.
“I was pretty confident I had a bronze medal there,” Mantia said after the men’s mass start in at the 2022 Olympics on Saturday in Beijing.
“Coming up on him, I thought my blade was in front of his, and then he put his back in front of mine. I don’t know if there was contact … it felt like maybe a little bit, maybe not on purpose, but it happens.”
A challenge was issued, but Mantia failed to medal in the men’s mass event, which only was added to the Games in 2018.
“Usually in the mass start, there’s, like, no rules,” Mantia said. “[Officials are] just like, ‘We don’t know how to call the race because there’s no real rules on stuff like that.’ Short track has a whole video replay system they can refer to and somebody makes that call. Long track is such a new event that you hope for the best, but usually you don’t get that call.”
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