500 metres, Men

Although still the heavy favourite, the 500 m was considered to be the event in which Jordan Stolz was most vulnerable. The 1,000 m Olympic Champion had won the 2023 and 2024 World titles, as well as five of the nine World Cup races in the 2025/26 season. He had only missed out on the title in 2025 while recovering from illness. That title was won by Jenning de Boo, one of the possible gold medal contenders. The Dutchman had also won one of the World Cup races in the season, narrowly missing out on the world record in Salt Lake City. Poland’s Damian Żurek had beaten Stolz at the two most recent World Cup races. Outsiders were Kim Jun-Ho, who had also won a World Cup race, Yevgeny Koshkin and who had recorded the fastest ever 100 m opener during the season. Defending champion Gao Tingyu was not considered a major contender, although he had claimed the gold at the 2025 Asian Games.

The first really fast pair came in heat nine. Tatsuya Shinhama and Marek Kania battled it out until the finish line, the Japanese winning in 34.46 just 0.02 ahead of the Polish skater. Next up was Laurent Dubreuil of Canada. He had been the World Champion in 2021 and runner-up in 2023 and 2024, and fourth in Beijing 2022. He had struggled to finish in the top-10 in the 2025/26 season, but recorded the best race of his season with 34.26. After Koshkin (34.56) and Gao (34.47) failed to challenge for first, pair 13 saw Stolz vs de Boo. The American was ahead by 0.07 but De Boo crept closer during the lap and coming out of the final curve, he was slightly ahead. Stolz then had his trademark final straight performance, skating ahead to a 33.77 (an Olympic Record) finish, with de Boo in 33.88. Żurek and Sebas Diniz were also close in the next pair, but with 34.35 and 34.46 they had to settle for fourth and fifth.

Stolz’s gold was the USA’s eighth title in the Olympic 500 m, and the first one since Joey Cheek in Torino 2006. The Netherlands had not won a 500 m medal since it swept the podium in 2014. Meanwhile, Dubreuil’s bronze was the fifth ever for Canada, the highest number (tied with Japan) of any nation.