The women's 500 m competition in speed skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics was held on 15 February, at the Milano Speed Skating Stadium in Milan. Femke Kok of the Netherlands won the event, setting a new Olympic record. This was her second Olympic medal and first gold. Her teammate Jutta Leerdam won the silver medal, and Miho Takagi of Japan won bronze.
Background The 2022 champion, Erin Jackson, and the silver medalist, Miho Takagi, qualified for the event. The bronze medalist, Angelina Golikova, was barred from international competitions after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Before the Olympics, Femke Kok was leading the 500m standings of the 2025–26 ISU Speed Skating World Cup. She was also the 500m 2025 world champion.
Summary Takagi in pair 4 became the early leader with 37.27. This time was only improved by Leerdam in pair 12. At that point, Serena Pergher was standing in the bronze medal position. This provisional podium was kept until pair 15, the last one, in which Kok skated with a new Olympic record, moving Pergher off the podium. The defending champion, Jackson, also skating in pair 15, was fifth.
Qualification
Records Prior to this competition, the existing world, Olympic and track records were as follows.
A new Olympic record was set during the competition; the previous record was set eight years earlier and was broken by 0.45 seconds; no others were under the previous record.
Date Round Athlete Country Time Record 15 February Pair 15 Femke Kok 36.49 OR, TR
Results Rank Pair Lane Name Country Time Time behind Notes 15 O Femke Kok 36.49 12 I Jutta Leerdam 37.15 +0.66 4 O Miho Takagi 37.27 +0.78 4 10 O Serena Pergher 37.30 +0.81 5 15 I Erin Jackson 37.32 +0.83 6 13 O Kaja Ziomek-Nogal 37.39 +0.90 7 9 O Béatrice Lamarche 37.53 +1.04 8 12 O Sophie Warmuth 37.75 +1.26 9 7 O Rio Yamada 37.78 +1.29 10 13 I Lee Na-hyun 37.86 +1.37 11 8 O Andżelika Wójcik 37.914 +1.42 11 11 O Chen Ying-chu 37.914 +1.42 13 14 O Yukino Yoshida 37.98 +1.49 14 10 I Kim Min-sun 38.010 +1.52 15 14 I Anna Boersma 38.013 +1.52 16 8 I Tian Ruining 38.14 +1.65 17 11 I Martyna Baran 38.15 +1.66 18 9 I Kristina Silaeva 38.33 +1.84 19 5 I Brooklyn McDougall 38.36 +1.87 20 6 I Julie Nistad Samsonsen 38.37 +1.88 21 7 I Carolina Hiller 38.38 +1.89 22 4 I Wang Jingziqian 38.57 +2.08 23 5 O Fran Vanhoutte 38.63 +2.14 24 3 I Maybritt Vigl 38.66 +2.17 25 1 I Ellia Smeding 38.93 +2.44 26 2 I Nikola Zdráhalová 39.00 +2.51 27 6 O Anna Ostlender 39.02 +2.53 28 2 O Sarah Warren 39.19 +2.70 29 3 O Arina Ilyachshenko 39.38 +2.89
References