# Speed skating at the 1988 Winter Olympics – Men's 5000 metres

The men's 5000 metres in speed skating at the 1988 Winter Olympics took place on 17 February, at the Olympic Oval. 38 competitors from 18 nations participated in the event.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:
| World record | Geir Karlstad (NOR) | 6:43.59 | Calgary, Canada | 4 December 1987 |
| Olympic record | Eric Heiden (USA) | 7:02.29 | Lake Placid, United States | 16 February 1980 |
The following new World and Olympic records were set during the competition:
| Date | Pair | Athlete | Country | Time | OR |
| 17 February | Pair 1 | Dmitriy Bochkaryov | Soviet Union | 6:56.57 | OR |
| 17 February | Pair 2 | Leo Visser | Netherlands | 6:44.98 | OR |
| 17 February | Pair 9 | Tomas Gustafson | Sweden | 6:44.63 | OR |

## Results

| Rank | Pair | Lane | Athlete | Country | Time | Time behind | Notes |
| | 9 | I | Tomas Gustafson | Sweden | 6:44.63 | — | OR |
| | 2 | O | Leo Visser | Netherlands | 6:44.98 | +0.35 | |
| | 4 | O | Gerard Kemkers | Netherlands | 6:45.92 | +1.29 | |
| 4 | 8 | I | Eric Flaim | United States | 6:47.09 | +2.46 | |
| 5 | 3 | O | Michael Hadschieff | Austria | 6:48.72 | +4.09 | |
| 6 | 11 | I | Dave Silk | United States | 6:49.95 | +5.32 | |
| 7 | 3 | I | Geir Karlstad | Norway | 6:50.88 | +6.25 | |
| 8 | 10 | I | Roland Freier | East Germany | 6:51.42 | +6.79 | |
| 9 | 7 | I | Mark Greenwald | United States | 6:51.98 | +7.35 | |
| 10 | 12 | O | Danny Kah | Australia | 6:52.14 | +7.51 | |
| 11 | 16 | O | Roberto Sighel | Italy | 6:53.04 | +8.41 | |
| 12 | 6 | O | Rolf Falk-Larssen | Norway | 6:54.37 | +9.74 | |
| 13 | 5 | O | Herbert Dijkstra | Netherlands | 6:54.63 | +10.00 | |
| 14 | 7 | O | Toru Aoyanagi | Japan | 6:54.70 | +10.07 | |
| 15 | 16 | I | Bruno Milesi | Italy | 6:54.93 | +10.30 | |
| 16 | 10 | O | Pertti Niittylä | Finland | 6:55.18 | +10.55 | |
| 17 | 1 | O | Dmitry Bochkaryov | Soviet Union | 6:56.57 | +11.94 | |
| 18 | 15 | I | Timo Järvinen | Finland | 6:56.68 | +12.05 | |
| 19 | 19 | I | Per Bengtsson | Sweden | 6:57.05 | +12.42 | |
| 20 | 4 | I | Christian Eminger | Austria | 6:57.22 | +12.59 | |
| 21 | 2 | I | Ben Lamarche | Canada | 6:57.63 | +13.00 | |
| 22 | 17 | I | Hans van Helden | France | 6:57.69 | +13.06 | |
| 23 | 6 | I | Sergey Berezin | Soviet Union | 6:58.08 | +13.45 | |
| 24 | 5 | I | Hansjörg Baltes | West Germany | 6:59.45 | +14.82 | |
| 25 | 14 | I | Jiří Kyncl | Czechoslovakia | 6:59.82 | +15.19 | |
| 26 | 1 | I | Yury Klyuyev | Soviet Union | 7:00.01 | +15.38 | |
| 27 | 9 | O | Munehisa Kuroiwa | Japan | 7:01.55 | +16.92 | |
| 28 | 18 | O | Song Yong-hun | North Korea | 7:01.56 | +16.93 | |
| 29 | 17 | O | Kim Gwan-gyu | South Korea | 7:02.13 | +17.50 | |
| 30 | 15 | O | Joakim Karlberg | Sweden | 7:02.30 | +17.67 | |
| 31 | 12 | I | Jean Pichette | Canada | 7:04.95 | +20.32 | |
| 32 | 13 | I | Yoshiyuki Shimizu | Japan | 7:05.35 | +20.72 | |
| 33 | 8 | O | Frode Syvertsen | Norway | 7:05.57 | +20.94 | |
| 34 | 14 | O | Gordon Goplen | Canada | 7:08.49 | +23.86 | |
| 35 | 19 | O | Im Ri-bin | North Korea | 7:10.13 | +25.50 | |
| 36 | 13 | O | Hwang Ik-hwan | South Korea | 7:10.65 | +26.02 | |
| 37 | 11 | I | Julian Green | Great Britain | 7:13.20 | +28.57 | |
| 38 | 18 | I | Craig McNicoll | Great Britain | 7:34.14 | +49.51 | |