What to watch
Women’s 1500m heats: Saturday, Feb. 17, 5:00 a.m. ET
Recommended Videos
Women’s 1500m semifinal: Saturday, Feb. 17, 6:13 a.m. ET
Women’s 1500m final: Saturday, Feb. 17, 7:05 a.m. ET
The International Field
Choi Min-Jeong, South Korea: The two-time overall world champion won three of four 1500m races during the fall World Cup season. Choi is coming off of heartbreak in the 500m final where she finished in second place and then was penalized, surrendering her medal.
"I did my best for the final and I was so happy that I could be in the final," Choi said after the race. "I still have other competitions left, so I will focus and concentrate on those."
Shim Suk-Hee, South Korea: The 2014 Olympic silver medalist in this event, should be a top threat. Shim left Sochi with three Olympic medals and has since had continued success, claiming a medal in this distance at four of the last five world championships.The 2018 Games are a homecoming of sorts for the 21-year-old: she grew up in Gangneung, the city that will host the Olympic short track competition.
Elise Christie, Great Britain: Similar to Choi, Christie's ability to recover from the 500m final will be crucial to her perfromance in the 1500m. In the final, Christie was involved in a collision, finishing in last. Christie enters PyeongChang as the reigning 1500m world champion.
"It's obviously really hard to explain. I've worked so hard for that moment out there and I got knocked over. It's so out of my control and that almost feels worse," Christie said following the race. ""I've got almost a week until my best event, the 1000, to turn it around but, as I say, it just sucks."
Marianne St-Gelais, Canada: St-Gelais finished second in this event at last year’s World Championships, continuing a similar trend: all of St-Gelais' three Olympic medals are silver, as are nine of her 13 world championship medals. She has also finished second in the overall standings at the World Championships each of the last two seasons. Like Choi and Christie St- Gelais did not have a strong 500m performance. The Canadian was eliminated in the 500m quarterfinals after being penalized.
"She just fell behind me. There's nothing to call on that," St-Gelais said to the media. "Then they whistle. But I was like, 'There's nothing to do about it, she just fell. We gonna redo the race, redo the start, and everything's gonna be right', but they decided something else."
The Americans
Who’s competing: Lana Gehring, Jessica Koorenman, and Maame Biney
Jessica Koorenman: Koorenman is the final memebr of the three-women team to skate in PyeongChang. In Sochi, Koorenman finished seventh in the 1000m.
Maame Biney and Lana Gehring: Both skaters are wild cards in the event after exploding at U.S. Trials. While Biney received a lot of attention at Trials, Gehring silently won both the 1000m and 1500m. Biney and Gehring did not have success in the 500m with neither one reaching the semifinal stage.
"I'm still in that learning process of how to get back really quick when I get bumped at the start. That doesn't normally happen to me. I'm going to have to figure out how to get back into the rhythm of a race," Biney said.