Speed Skating 2018/Women's 500 metre

Women's 500 metre
General information
Sport	Speed Skating 2018
Date	18 February 2018
Competitors	31 athletes
Venue	Gangneung Oval
Previous medalists
Gold	Lee Sang-hwa
Silver	Olga Fatkulina
Bronze	Margot Boer
Conditions
Temperature	16.5°C / 61.7°F
Length	500 metres
Medalists
	Nao Kodaira
	Lee Sang-hwa
	Karolina Erbanova

The women's 500 metre of Speed Skating 2018 during the 2018 Winter Olympics was held on 18 February 2018 in the Gangneung Oval. With 31 athletes competing, the event was won by Nao Kodaira from Japan, with Lee Sang-hwa from South Korea taking the silver medal and Karolina Erbanova from Czech Republic taking bronze.

Format

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

Preview

Thirty-one athletes qualified for the event and it was expected that the title would be decided between Nao Kodaira from Japan, who had dominated the previous two seasons, and Lee Sang-hwa from South Korea, who was the two-time and defending Olympic champion. These two ladies had dominated most of the previous six seasons, and these two were clear favorites above the rest. Other medal contenders were Vanessa Herzog, who had won a World Cup in absence of both Kodaira and Lee, Americans Heather Bergsma and Brittany Bowe, Angelina Golikova, Arisa Go and Karolina Erbanova.

Current Records

Record	Date	Nat.	Name	Time
WR	16 November 2013		Lee Sang-hwa	36.36
OR	11 February 2014		Lee Sang-hwa	37.28
TR	7 February 2018		Nao Kodaira	37.05

Results

Anice Das was the first speed skater to start, without an opponent, and her time of 38.75 proved to be a challenging time to beat, with only Jorien ter Mors setting a time faster than hers after seven pairs, and with 37.53, she was more than a second faster than Das. With Heather Bergsma setting a time of more than 38 seconds in the ninth pair, the medal contenders were still to go in the last six pairs. In the eleventh pair, Brittany Bowe was only 0.009 seconds faster than ter Mors, with Erina Kamiya setting the fifth provisional time, already out of contention for a medal. Both skaters in the twelfth pair, Heather McLean and Hege Bokko, were slower than Kamiya, while both skaters in the thirteenth pair, Yu Jing and Marsha Hudey, set a time between 37.80 and 37.90, earning their place in the top 10. The next pair, with top favorite Nao Kodaira and European sprint champion Karolina Erbanova, was very fast, both skaters at least 0.2 seconds faster than Bowe, with Kodaira even 0.6 seconds faster, as well as setting a new Olympic record by more than 0.3 seconds. The fastest start of the day was from Sang-hwa Lee, who raced 10.2 seconds over the first 100 meters, finishing only 0.01 seconds faster than Erbanova, clinching the silver medal. The last pair didn't show a real challenge for the medals, although Vanessa Herzog was able to finish fourth, on a safe distance from the bronze medal. Angelina Golikova (7th) and Arisa Go (8th) completed the top 10.

Nao Kodaira won her first gold medal in her Olympic career, after already winning silver medals in the women's team pursuit in Vancouver and the 1000 metre a few days prior. Lee Sang-hwa, who won the silver medal, also won her third medal, after winning the gold medal in the previous two editions of the event. Karolina Erbanova won her first medal in her third Olympic appearance. Vanessa Herzog reached her highest result ever, while Brittany Bowe came close to the podium once again, after two fourth-place finishes, and Jorien ter Mors wasn't able to her fourth Olympic medal.

Result	Athlete	Nationality	Time
	Nao Kodaira	Japan	36.94	OR
	Lee Sang-hwa	South Korea	37.33
	Karolina Erbanova	Czech Republic	37.34
4	Vanessa Herzog	Austria	37.51
5	Brittany Bowe	United States	37.530
6	Jorien ter Mors	Netherlands	37.539
7	Angelina Golikova	Olympic Athletes from Russia	37.62
8	Arisa Go	Japan	37.67
9	Yu Jing	China	37.81
10	Marsha Hudey	Canada	37.88
11	Heather Bergsma	United States	38.13
12	Kim Hyun-yung	South Korea	38.251
13	Erina Kamiya	Japan	38.255
14	Heather McLean	Canada	38.29
15	Zhang Hong	China	38.39
16	Kim Min-sun	South Korea	38.534
16	Judith Dannhauer	Germany	38.534
18	Hege Bokko	Norway	38.538
19	Anice Das	Netherlands	38.75
20	Tian Ruining	China	38.86
21	Yekaterina Aydova	Kazakhstan	38.96
22	Huang Yu-ting	Chinese Taipei	38.98
23	Lotte van Beek	Netherlands	39.18
24	Erin Jackson	United States	39.20
25	Kaja Ziomek	Poland	39.26
26	Yvonne Daldossi	Italy	39.28
27	Ida Njatun	Norway	39.33
28	Elina Risku	Finland	39.36
29	Francesca Bettrone	Italy	39.52
30	Kseniya Sadouskaya	Belarus	39.64
31	Alexandra Ianculescu	Romania	40.70