Canada's Samuel Girard steered clear of some late lap mayhem to steal the Olympic short-track speedskating 1,000 metres gold medal on Saturday.

With a crash taking out three of five skaters as the pack entered the final lap, Girard held off John-Henry Krueger of the United States, who took the silver while South Korea's Seo Yira was quickest to get to his feet to secure a bronze.

Girard's victory recalled one of the most memorable finals ever seen at the Olympics when Stephen Bradbury skated away with the 1,000m gold at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games after all four other skaters fell on the last turn.

The carnage was not quite as spectacular as in Salt Lake as Girard still had to fight off a challenge from Krueger to break Asia's domination of the 1,000m.

Six of the eight gold medals in this event have been claimed by South Koreans while another was won by Russian Viktor Ahn, who was born in Korea. Bradbury had the other.

One major obstacle to the gold medal was removed when the International Olympic Committee banned Sochi 1,000m champion Ahn from competing in Pyeongchang following an investigation into widespread state sponsored doping.