Short Track 2018/Women's 500 metre

Women's 500 metre
General information
Sport	Short Track 2018
Date	10-13 February 2018
Competitors	32 athletes
Venue	Gangneung Ice Arena
Previous medalists
Gold	Li Jianrou
Silver	Arianna Fontana
Bronze	Park Seung-hi
Conditions
Length	500 metres
Medalists
	Arianna Fontana
	Yara van Kerkhof
	Kim Boutin

The women's 500 metre of Short Track 2018 during the 2018 Winter Olympics was held on 10-13 February 2018 in the Gangneung Ice Arena. With 32 athletes competing, the event was won by Arianna Fontana from Italy, with Yara van Kerkhof from Netherlands taking the silver medal and Kim Boutin from Canada taking bronze.

Format

The competition exists out of four rounds, each with races of four or five skaters. In each round, the top two with the fastest time advance to the next round, with confirmation of a jury. The fastest competitor in the final is the winner of the event.

Preview

Thirty-two athletes qualified for the event, and there were a few strong medal contenders. These included the home favorite, world champion, and first in the world rankings Choi Min-jeong, reigning Olympic silver medalist Arianna Fontana, Vancouver silver medalist and leader in the event World Cup Marianne St-Gelais, and youngster Kim Boutin. Elise Christie would also be looking for redemption after she got three penalties at Sochi 2014. Outsiders included Fan Kexin, Martina Valcepina, and Maame Biney.

Maame Biney was the youngest participant, having just turned 18 years old. One of the big medal contenders, Choi Min-jeong, was also younger than 20 years old, just like Anna Seidel and Petra Jaszapati. The oldest competitor Veronique Pierron was only 29 years old, and only six days older than Andrea Keszler. Eight other skaters were born about a year later, in 1990. Sixteen out of thirty-two athletes had competed at the Olympic Games before, of which seven have had competed at least twice before. Arianna Fontana was the veteran of the group, this being her fourth Olympic appearance. Fontana went for a gold medal, after already winning a silver and a bronze medal at Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014. Marianne St-Gelais was also aiming to equal or best her performance of eight years prior.

Current Records

Record	Date	Nat.	Name	Time
WR	13 November 2016		Elise Christie	42.335
OR	17 February 2010		Wang Meng	42.985

Summary

Heats

There were few surprises in the heats, based on the world rankings. In the second heat, Kathryn Thomson and Suzanne Schulting crashed, causing the latter to miss the quarterfinals. In the fourth heat, Elise Christie showed her determination by skating to a new Olympic record, with Qu Chunyu surprising behind her with a second-place finish, before home skater Shim Suk-hee. In the seventh heat, Anna Seidel surprised with qualification, before Lara van Ruijven and Magdalena Warakomska, and in the last heat, the Olympic record was bested again. Home favorite Choi Min-jeong raced without any real competition, with Petra Jaszapati finishing more than 10 seconds behind her.

Heat 1 Results
Rank	Nat.	Athlete	Time	Info
1		Kim Boutin	43.634	Q
2		Natalia Maliszewska	43.725	Q
3		Lana Gehring	43.825
4		Lucia Peretti	43.994

Heat 2 Results
Rank	Nat.	Athlete	Time	Info
1		Arianna Fontana	43.214	Q
2		Andrea Keszler	43.274	Q, PR
3		Kathryn Thomson	1:08.896
4		Suzanne Schulting	-

Heat 3 Results
Rank	Nat.	Athlete	Time	Info
1		Sofia Prosvirnova	43.376	Q
2		Yara van Kerkhof	43.430	Q
3		Bianca Walter	43.541
4		Sumire Kikuchi	44.838

Heat 4 Results
Rank	Nat.	Athlete	Time	Info
1		Elise Christie	42.872	Q, OR
2		Qu Chunyu	42.971	Q, PR
3		Shim Suk-hee	43.048
4		Veronique Pierron	43.148	PR

Heat 5 Results
Rank	Nat.	Athlete	Time	Info
1		Fan Kexin	43.350	Q
2		Maame Biney	43.665	Q
3		Kim A-lang	43.724
4		Anastassiya Krestova	43.814	PR

Heat 6 Results
Rank	Nat.	Athlete	Time	Info
1		Martina Valcepina	43.698	Q
2		Han Yutong	43.719	Q
3		Tifany Huot Marchand	44.659
4		Jamie Macdonald		PEN

Heat 7 Results
Rank	Nat.	Athlete	Time	Info
1		Marianne St Gelais	43.437	Q
2		Anna Seidel	43.742	Q, PR
3		Lara van Ruijven	43.771
4		Magdalena Warakomska	44.311

Heat 8 Results
Rank	Nat.	Athlete	Time	Info
1		Choi Min-jeong	42.870	Q, OR
2		Petra Jaszapati	55.641	Q
3		Emina Malagich	56.808
4		Charlotte Gilmartin		PEN

Quarterfinals

In the quarterfinals, four races of four skaters each, there was even more excitement going on. The first heat of the quarterfinals, the field was packed, with both Fontana and Marianne St-Gelais, as well as Yara van Kerkhof, three skaters of the top 10 in the world rankings. Despite a penalty for St-Gelais, who lost her chance to improve upon her performance at Vancouver 2010, the race was close, with Fontana coming out on top, in front of Van Kerkhof and Maliszewska. The second quarterfinal once again had a new Olympic record, by Christie beating her (and Choi's) time as set in the heats. Behind her, Kim Boutin showed her aspirations by finishing only 0.08 seconds behind Christie, despite a fall just in front of the finish line. In the third heat of the quarterfinals, there was little else to note, with Sofia Prosvirnova and Fan Kexin continuing, on some distance of Han Yutong and Maame Biney. In the last quarterfinal, Qu Chunyu somewhat surprised, finishing in front of former Olympic record holder Choi and Martina Valcepina, with the help of a photo finish.

Quarterfinal 1 Results
Rank	Nat.	Athlete	Time	Info
1		Arianna Fontana	43.128	Q
2		Yara van Kerkhof	43.197	Q
3		Natalia Maliszewska	43.384
4		Marianne St Gelais		PEN

Quarterfinal 2 Results
Rank	Nat.	Athlete	Time	Info
1		Elise Christie	42.703	Q, OR
2		Kim Boutin	42.789	Q, PR
3		Andrea Keszler	43.053	PR
4		Anna Seidel	44.325

Quarterfinal 3 Results
Rank	Nat.	Athlete	Time	Info
1		Sofia Prosvirnova	43.466	Q
2		Fan Kexin	43.485	Q
3		Han Yutong	43.627
4		Maame Biney	44.772

Quarterfinal 4 Results
Rank	Nat.	Athlete	Time	Info
1		Qu Chunyu	42.954	Q, PR
2		Choi Min-jeong	42.996	Q
3		Martina Valcepina	43.023
4		Petra Jaszapati	43.043

Semifinals

Both semifinals were full of twists and turns. In the first semifinal, Choi once again set a new Olympic record, the fourth time that the old record was broken. Behind her, Fontana reached the final of the event for the third time in a row. Fan received a penalty after impeding, which meant that Prosvirnova would be the only one advancing to the B final of this semifinal. The second semifinal was kept very tight until the end, with Van Kerkhof edging Christie by only 0.002 seconds to advance to the final. The second Chinese skater Qu got another penalty for obstruction, and the third-placed skater in the race Boutin was advancing to the final after jury decision.

Semifinal 1 Results
Rank	Nat.	Athlete	Time	Info
1		Choi Min-jeong	42.422	QA, OR
2		Arianna Fontana	42.635	QA, PR
3		Sofia Prosvirnova	43.219	QB
4		Fan Kexin		PEN

Semifinal 2 Results
Rank	Nat.	Athlete	Time	Info
1		Yara van Kerkhof	43.182	QA
2		Elise Christie	43.184	QA
3		Kim Boutin	43.234	ADVA
4		Qu Chunyu		PEN

Finals

In the final, most of the major medal contenders as predicted at the start were present, with Choi, Fontana, Christie, and Boutin competing. Choi received a penalty after the race, and Christie crashed, eliminating both for a medal. Arianna Fontana was finally able to win her gold medal at the 500 metre, with Van Kerkhof surprising with a second place. Youngster Kim Boutin completed the podium.

A Final Results
Rank	Nat.	Athlete	Time	Info
1		Arianna Fontana	42.569	PR
2		Yara van Kerkhof	43.256
3		Kim Boutin	43.881
4		Elise Christie	1:34.063
5		Choi Min-jeong		PEN

The B final was not held, after Sofia Prosvirnova would have been the only competitor. She was ranked fifth in the event, after Choi Min-jeong received a penalty in the A final.

B Final Results
Rank	Nat.	Athlete	Time	Info
1		Sofia Prosvirnova		???

Results

Result	Athlete	Nationality
	Arianna Fontana	Italy
	Yara van Kerkhof	Netherlands
	Kim Boutin	Canada
4	Elise Christie	Great Britain
5	Sofia Prosvirnova	Olympic Athletes from Russia
6	Choi Min-jeong	South Korea
7	Qu Chunyu	China
8	Fan Kexin	China
9	Martina Valcepina	Italy
10	Andrea Keszler	Hungary
11	Natalia Maliszewska	Poland
12	Han Yutong	China
13	Petra Jaszapati	Hungary
14	Maame Biney	United States
15	Anna Seidel	Germany
16	Marianne St Gelais	Canada
17	Shim Suk-hee	South Korea
18	Bianca Walter	Germany
19	Kim A-lang	South Korea
20	Lara van Ruijven	Netherlands
21	Lana Gehring	United States
22	Tifany Huot Marchand	France
23	Emina Malagich	Olympic Athletes from Russia
24	Kathryn Thomson	Great Britain
25	Veronique Pierron	France
26	Anastassiya Krestova	Kazakhstan
27	Lucia Peretti	Italy
28	Magdalena Warakomska	Poland
29	Sumire Kikuchi	Japan
30	Suzanne Schulting	Netherlands
-	Charlotte Gilmartin	Great Britain
-	Jamie Macdonald	Canada