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, winner of every single pre-Olympic ISU World Cup 500m in the 2017/18 season, and Lee Sang-hwa, world record holder at this distance and 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 (which Gangneung is not). 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 (UTC+9). Date Time Event 18 February 20:56 Women'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.

Date Round Athlete Country Time Record 18 February Pair 14 Nao Kodaira 36.94 OR, WB (sea level), TR OR = Olympic record, TR = track record, WB = world best

Results The races were held at 20:56.

Rank Pair Lane Name Country Time Time behind Notes 14 I Nao Kodaira 36.94 , TR 15 O Lee Sang-hwa 37.33 +0.39 14 O Karolína Erbanová 37.34 +0.40 16 I Vanessa Herzog 37.51 +0.57 11 O Brittany Bowe 37.530 +0.59 4 I Jorien ter Mors 37.539 +0.59 16 O Angelina Golikova 37.62 +0.68 15 I Arisa Go 37.67 +0.73 13 I Yu Jing 37.81 +0.87 10 13 O Marsha Hudey 37.88 +0.94 11 9 O Heather Bergsma 38.13 +1.19 12 10 O Kim Hyun-yung 38.251 +1.31 13 11 I Erina Kamiya 38.255 +1.31 14 12 O Heather McLean 38.29 +1.35 15 8 I Zhang Hong 38.39 +1.45 16 10 I Judith Dannhauer 38.534 +1.59 16 9 I Kim Min-sun 38.534 +1.59 18 12 I Hege Bøkko 38.538 +1.59 19 1 I Anice Das 38.75 +1.81 20 5 O Tian Ruining 38.86 +1.92 21 8 O Yekaterina Aydova 38.96 +2.02 22 6 O Huang Yu-ting 38.98 +2.04 23 3 I Lotte van Beek 39.18 +2.24 24 2 O Erin Jackson 39.20 +2.26 25 4 O Kaja Ziomek 39.26 +2.32 26 7 I Yvonne Daldossi 39.28 +2.34 27 2 I Ida Njåtun 39.33 +2.39 28 7 O Elina Risku 39.36 +2.42 29 6 I Francesca Bettrone 39.52 +2.58 30 5 I Kseniya Sadouskaya 39.64 +2.70 31 3 O Alexandra Ianculescu 40.70 +3.76

References