Olympic speedskating: Women’s 500m results and medals

Speedskating continued at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in the early hours of Sunday, Feb. 18 with the women’s 500-meter medal race.

In the early hours on Sunday, Feb. 18 stateside, speedskating fans got to experience the ladies’ 500m finals in real time. As expected, Japan’s Nao Kodaira came away with the gold medal, setting an Olympic record in the process with a time of 36.94 — beating the standing OR held by Lee Sang-hwa, of South Korea. Reigning world champion and now Olympic champion, Kodaira has dominated the event over the past few seasons and is now the first woman to finish the race in under 37 seconds at sea level. She is also the first female Japanese speedskater to win an Olympic title in an individual event. (Kodaira is having a great Olympics: She also won the silver medal in the women’s 1,000-meter race on Wednesday.)

Lee, who previously held the Olympic title and record, did win silver, coming in 0.39 behind Kodaira. The silver medal, however, was more closely contested than the gold, with Karolina Erbanova, representing the Czech Republic, just 0.01 seconds behind Lee. Japan’s Ariza Go, the expected bronze medalist, came in eighth.

MEDAL RESULT | 500m Women's Speedskating

Nao Kodaira

Lee Sang-Hwa

Karolina Erbanova

Olympic speedskating is beginning to wrap up, but there are two more events for fans of the sport. Women’s speedskating continues with the team pursuit qualifications on early Monday morning, the team pursuit medal event on Wednesday and the mass start, a new event, the following and final weekend. (It should surprise no one that the Netherlands is the favorite for the team pursuit.)

Next: Best Olympian from each state

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