Speed Skating 2018/Men's 500 metre

Men's 500 metre
General information
Sport	Speed Skating 2018
Date	19 February 2018
Competitors	36 athletes
Venue	Gangneung Oval
Previous medalists
Gold	Michel Mulder
Silver	Jan Smeekens
Bronze	Ronald Mulder
Conditions
Temperature	16.5°C / 61.7°F
Length	500 metres
Medalists
	Havard Lorentzen
	Cha Min-kyu
	Gao Tingyu

The men's 500 metre of Speed Skating 2018 during the 2018 Winter Olympics was held on 19 February 2018 in the Gangneung Oval. With 36 athletes competing, the event was won by Havard Lorentzen from Norway, with Cha Min-kyu from South Korea taking the silver medal and Gao Tingyu from China taking bronze.

Format

The competition exists out of eighteen head-to-head races of 500 metres. The competitor with the fastest time is the winner.

Preview

Thirty-six athletes qualified for the event with Havard Lorentzen as one of the favorites, in absence of the outstanding Russian skaters, such as world record holder Pavel Kulizhnikov. The Norwegian had won three out of nine races in the ongoing World Cup, followed by Alex Boisvert-Lacroix with two. Defending bronze medalist Ronald Mulder and Laurent Dubreuil were the other two athletes to have won a race in the season, but the differences in the top had been very small. The reigning Olympic champion Michel Mulder was not able to qualify through the national trials, but the silver medalist of Sochi Jan Smeekens was able to attempt for gold. Other medal contenders and outsiders included veteran Mika Poutala, Kai Verbij, Daichi Yamanaka, Nico Ihle, and Gilmore Junio.

Athlete	Nationality
Tsubasa Hasegawa	Japan
Daniel Greig	Australia
Kimani Griffin	United States
Artyom Krikunov	Kazakhstan
Mathias Voste	Belgium
Joel Dufter	Germany
Mirko Giacomo Nenzi	Italy
Xie Jiaxuan	China
Ignat Golovatsiuk	Belarus
Yang Tao	China
Stanislav Palkin	Kazakhstan
Pedro Causil	Colombia
Sung Ching-yang	Chinese Taipei
Jonathan Garcia	United States
Henrik Fagerli Rukke	Norway
Artur Nogal	Poland
Roman Krech	Kazakhstan
Pekka Koskela	Finland
Mitchell Whitmore	United States
Jan Smeekens	Netherlands
Piotr Michalski	Poland
Mo Tae-bum	South Korea
Gao Tingyu	China
Joji Kato	Japan
Kim Jun-ho	South Korea
Laurent Dubreuil	Canada
Gilmore Junio	Canada
Cha Min-kyu	South Korea
Artur Was	Poland
Nico Ihle	Germany
Ronald Mulder	Netherlands
Havard Lorentzen	Norway
Daichi Yamanaka	Japan
Kai Verbij	Netherlands
Alex Boisvert-Lacroix	Canada
Mika Poutala	Finland

Current Records

Record	Date	Nat.	Name	Time
WR	20 November 2015		Pavel Kulizhnikov	33.98
OR	11 February 2002		Casey Fitzrandolph	34.42
TR	10 February 2017		Jan Smeekens	34.58

Results

The first pairing between Tsubasa Hasegawa and Daniel Greig set a high standard for the rest of the competition, with the Japanese winning the duel in a time of 35.08, a time that would have finished him second and eighth in the most recent World Cup weekend. In the first half of the competition, this time proved impossible to beat, with only Pekka Koskela, the first Colombian speed skater at the Olympic Games Pedro Causil, and Ignat Golovatsiuk coming within two tenths of a second from Hasegawa. After nine of eighteen pairings had been completed, the two skaters who started first were still in the provisional top 4, but most of the big pre-event medal contenders still had to set their times. The first to do so was the silver medalist of 2014 and the track record holder Jan Smeekens, who was 0.15 seconds faster than Hasegawa in his pairing against Mitchell Whitmore. His time was already broken by both Gao Tingyu and Joji Kato less than five minutes later, and another two pairings later, Cha Min-kyu seemed to become the ultimate underdog story by equalling the Olympic record set in 2002. In the last four pairings, the time of the Korean home favorite was only beaten once, by Havard Lorentzen, who was a hundredth of a second faster in his race against the defending bronze medalist Ronald Mulder. Other big veterans like Mika Poutala (4th), Nico Ihle (8th), and the world champion sprint Kai Verbij (9th) came no closer than 0.25 seconds from the Norwegian, with Daichi Yamanaka (5th) completing the top 10.

Havard Lorentzen won only the second Norwegian Olympic medal in speed skating since 2002, after Havard Bokko won a bronze medal in the 1500 metres in 2010. He was also the first Norwegian Olympic champion in the sport since 1998, when Lorentzen was only five years old, following Adne Sondral, and the first Norwegian ever to win the 500 metres. Cha Min-kyu, who equalled the former Olympic record before Lorentzen to win the silver medal, won a silver medal at his Olympic debut. Gao Tingyu became the first Chinese athlete to win an Olympic medal in men's speed skating at the age of 20. Mika Poutala finished fourth after his fifth place in 2010. Daichi Yamanaka finished fifth after having competed in the 1000 metres in 2014, while the previous two bronze medalists Joji Kato and Ronald Mulder finished sixth and seventh.

Result	Athlete	Nationality	Time
	Havard Lorentzen	Norway	34.41	OR
	Cha Min-kyu	South Korea	34.42
	Gao Tingyu	China	34.65
4	Mika Poutala	Finland	34.68
5	Daichi Yamanaka	Japan	34.78
6	Joji Kato	Japan	34.831
7	Ronald Mulder	Netherlands	34.839
8	Nico Ihle	Germany	34.89
9	Kai Verbij	Netherlands	34.90
10	Jan Smeekens	Netherlands	34.930
11	Alex Boisvert-Lacroix	Canada	34.934
12	Kim Jun-ho	South Korea	35.01
13	Artur Was	Poland	35.02
14	Tsubasa Hasegawa	Japan	35.08
15	Mitchell Whitmore	United States	35.13
16	Mo Tae-bum	South Korea	35.154
17	Gilmore Junio	Canada	35.158
18	Laurent Dubreuil	Canada	35.16
19	Pekka Koskela	Finland	35.192
20	Pedro Causil	Colombia	35.196
21	Daniel Greig	Australia	35.22
22	Ignat Golovatsiuk	Belarus	35.23
23	Jonathan Garcia	United States	35.31
24	Stanislav Palkin	Kazakhstan	35.33
25	Artyom Krikunov	Kazakhstan	35.34
26	Kimani Griffin	United States	35.38
27	Yang Tao	China	35.41
28	Henrik Fagerli Rukke	Norway	35.500
29	Joel Dufter	Germany	35.506
30	Mirko Giacomo Nenzi	Italy	35.51
31	Xie Jiaxuan	China	35.545
32	Mathias Voste	Belgium	35.546
33	Piotr Michalski	Poland	35.64
34	Sung Ching-yang	Chinese Taipei	35.86
35	Roman Krech	Kazakhstan	35.92
36	Artur Nogal	Poland	58.71