Speed skating at the 2002 Winter Olympics – Men's 500 metres explained

Event:	Men's 500 metres
Games:	2002 Winter
Venue:	Utah Olympic Oval
Dates:	11–12 February
Competitors:	38
Nations:	15
Longnames:	yes
Win Value:	69.23 OR
Gold:	Casey FitzRandolph
Goldnoc:	USA
Silver:	Hiroyasu Shimizu
Silvernoc:	JPN
Bronze:	Kip Carpenter
Bronzenoc:	USA
Prev:	1998
Next:	2006

The men's 500 m speed skating competition for the 2002 Winter Olympics was held in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The competition consisted of two separate 500 metre races, with the competitors ranked by their cumulative time from the two races.^[1]

Favorite Jeremy Wotherspoon fell in the first heat, taking him out of contention, but posted the fastest time in the second heat. Casey FitzRandolph became the first American to win the event since Eric Heiden in 1980.^[2]

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

500 meters (1 race)

The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.

Date	Round	Time	OR
February 11	Race 1	35.15	OR
February 11	Race 1	34.68	OR
February 11	Race 1	34.61	OR
February 11	Race 1	34.42	OR

Results

Rank	Race 1	Race 2	Total	Difference
	34.42	34.81	69.23	–
	34.61	34.65	69.26	+0.03
	34.68	34.79	69.47	+0.24
4	34.72	34.77	69.49	+0.26
5	34.74	34.85	69.59	+0.36
6	34.78	34.82	69.60	+0.37
7	34.77	34.83	69.60	+0.37
8	35.00	34.81	69.81	+0.58
9	35.14	34.72	69.86	+0.63
10	35.00	34.89	69.89	+0.66
11	35.09	35.01	70.10	+0.87
12	35.15	34.96	70.11	+0.88
13	35.10	35.18	70.28	+1.05
14	35.30	35.02	70.32	+1.09
15	35.18	35.15	70.33	+1.10
16	35.40	35.04	70.44	+1.21
17	35.45	35.12	70.57	+1.34
18	35.48	35.27	70.75	+1.52
19	35.47	35.37	70.84	+1.61
20	35.54	35.34	70.88	+1.65
21	35.62	35.35	70.97	+1.74
22	35.72	35.55	71.27	+2.04
23	35.70	35.69	71.39	+2.16
24	35.86	35.68	71.54	+2.31
25	36.05	35.91	71.96	+2.73
26	36.50	35.57	72.07	+2.84
27	36.41	36.08	72.49	+3.26
28	37.59	34.99	72.58	+3.35
29	36.26	36.38	72.64	+3.41
30	36.42	36.27	72.69	+3.46
31	36.24	36.69	72.93	+3.70
32	37.40	37.41	74.81	+5.58
33	73.11	35.35	108.46	+39.23
34	82.11	35.30	117.41	+48.18
35	97.67	35.90	133.57	+64.34
	DNF	34.63	-	-
	36.30	-	-	-
	36.80	-	-	-

Notes and References

Web site: Speed Skating at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games: Men's 500 metres . https://web.archive.org/web/20200417213728/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/winter/2002/SSK/mens-500-metres.html . dead . 17 April 2020 . Sports Reference . 6 November 2019.
Web site: American Speedskater Wins Gold . Liz Robbins . New York Times . February 12, 2002 . February 5, 2010 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20020213035221/http://www10.nytimes.com/2002/02/12/olympics/12CND-SPEED.html . February 13, 2002 .