New Zealand speed skater Peter Michael has narrowly missed out on a famous medal at the Winter Olympics.

Michael finished fourth in the 5000-metre speed skating event, just 2.46 seconds outside of the podium.

He sat in first place after setting an impressive time of 6:14.07, but with six skaters still to come, three of them beat his time to leave Michael with a bittersweet taste.

Sven Kramer of the Netherlands won the event in an Olympic record time of 6.09.76, to win his third consecutive gold medal.\

Considering he was tipped to finish eighth, Michael's performance was an extremely strong one, but the mulleted Kiwi just missed out on being the second New Zealander to win a medal at the Winter Olympics.

Racing alongside Dutchman Jan Blokhuijsen as the eighth pair of 12, the duo got out to a flying start, with Blokhuijsen - the 2014 silver medalist - setting a quick opening pace.

At one point, the pair were both 2.5 seconds ahead of the initial time to beat, but they both faded in the middle section, with Blokhuijsen especially dropping backwards.

That allowed Michael to pass him, and the 28-year-old Kiwi held on to beat the fastest time by 0.08 seconds.

With six skaters still to come and Michael in gold medal position, hopes were high, but it wasn't to be. The very next pairing - Canada's Ted-Jan Bloemen and Norway's Sverre Lunde Pedersen - both beat Michael's time, remarkably finishing in a dead heat at 6.11.61.

Bloemen, the world record holder, was judged to have crossed the line two thousands of a second ahead of Pedersen, but even he could not hold off Kramer, with the great Dutchman winning gold, and pushing Michael out of the medals.

Michael said he paid the price for a fast start.

"When I did see the time I realised it might not be quite enough. But you never know. I was trying to pull all the strings I had but it didn't quite happen through the middle section.

"I probably went into it a little bit too hot. It cost me a little bit through the middle section.

"Just lucky to have a little bit in the tank to get back at the end."

Michael now turns to his other endeavours, competing in the 1500 metre event on Tuesday, before linking up with Shane Dobbin and Reyon Kay for the team pursuit on February 21.