re: Speed skater sprints to the back of the pack at race start, wins because everyone forgot.

Just watched the video. What makes anyone think they forgot who was in first?

They didn’t forget, they just got smoked. Usually athletes are coached to run the race (or skate in this case) with their own game plan in mind. Just because someone sprints out ahead at the beginning doesn’t mean you do the same thing. You gotta run your race.

They were probably thinking they were going to catch her on the backside of the race.

Also… if they weren’t able to catch her, that tells me their pace was off and they weren’t going hard enough. Nobody should ever be able to sprint 1 lap ahead and not have anyone catch up to them.