Speed skating at the 2018 Winter Olympics – Women's 500 metres


The women's 500 metres speed skating competition of the 2018 Winter Olympics was held on 18 February 2018 at Gangneung Oval in Gangneung.

Summary

Pre-race favourites were Nao Kodaira, world record holder at this distance and winner of every single pre-Olympic ISU World Cup 500m in the 2017/18 season, and Lee Sang-hwa, two-time Olympic 500m gold medallist.
Skating in the fourth pair, Jorien Ter Mors posted a time of 37.53, which stood until Brittany Bowe improved it by 0.009 seconds in the eleventh pair. Starting in pair 16 versus Karolína Erbanová, Japan's Nao Kodaira raced to an Olympic and sea-level record of 36.94, clocking an unprecedented lap time of 26.68 - a pace for the longest time deemed "impossible" even at altitude. In pair 15, South Korea's Lee Sang-hwa opened faster than Kodaira and was up two tenths in back straight intermediate timings. However, an imperfect final inner turn saw her lose this advantage and cross the line 0.39 seconds down in 37.33 to take second place - a mere 0.01 seconds ahead of Erbanová's time. Vanessa Herzog, 500m gold medallist at the 2018 European Speed Skating Championships, was unable to challenge for a medal in the final pair, finishing fourth.

Competition schedule

All times are.
DateTimeEvent
18 February20:56Women's 500m Final

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world, Olympic and track records were as follows.
The following records were set during this competition.
DateRoundAthleteCountryTimeRecord
18 FebruaryPair 14Nao Kodaira36.94OR, WB , TR

OR = Olympic record, TR = track record, WB = world best

Results

The races were held at 20:56.
RankPairLaneNameCountryTimeTime behindNotes
14INao Kodaira36.94, TR
15OLee Sang-hwa37.33+0.39
14OKarolína Erbanová37.34+0.40
16IVanessa Herzog37.51+0.57
11OBrittany Bowe37.530+0.59
4IJorien ter Mors37.539+0.59
16OAngelina Golikova37.62+0.68
15IArisa Go37.67+0.73
13IYu Jing37.81+0.87
1013OMarsha Hudey37.88+0.94
119OHeather Bergsma38.13+1.19
1210OKim Hyun-yung38.251+1.31
1311IErina Kamiya38.255+1.31
1412OHeather McLean38.29+1.35
158IZhang Hong38.39+1.45
1610IJudith Dannhauer38.534+1.59
169IKim Min-sun38.534+1.59
1812IHege Bøkko38.538+1.59
191IAnice Das38.75+1.81
205OTian Ruining38.86+1.92
218OYekaterina Aydova38.96+2.02
226OHuang Yu-ting38.98+2.04
233ILotte van Beek39.18+2.24
242OErin Jackson39.20+2.26
254OKaja Ziomek39.26+2.32
267IYvonne Daldossi39.28+2.34
272IIda Njåtun39.33+2.39
287OElina Risku39.36+2.42
296IFrancesca Bettrone39.52+2.58
305IKseniya Sadouskaya39.64+2.70
313OAlexandra Ianculescu40.70+3.76