Short track speed skating at the 2006 Winter Olympics – Men's 500 metres


The men's 500 metres in short track speed skating at the 2006 Winter Olympics began on 22 February, with the final on 25 February, at the Torino Palavela.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:
No new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.

Results

Heats

The first round was held on 22 February. There were seven heats of three or four skaters each, with the top two finishers and the two fastest third-place skaters moving on to the quarterfinals.
;Heat 1
HeatRankAthleteCountryResultNotes
11Ahn Hyun-soo42.960Q
12Dariusz Kulesza42.960Q
13Tyson Heung43.572
21Éric Bédard42.480Q
22Jon Eley42.511Q
23Vyacheslav Kurginyan43.183
24Alex McEwan45.173
31Wim de Deyne42.883Q
32Arian Nachbar43.006Q
33Volodymyr Grygoriev43.583
34Matus Uzak45.173
41Satoru Terao42.607Q
42François-Louis Tremblay42.779Q
43Cees Juffermans42.849q
44Seo Ho-jinDQ
51Li Juajun42.914Q
52Peter Darazs42.929Q
53Mikhail Razhin44.077
54Anthony Lobello1:13.722
61Lee Ho-suk42.676Q
62Li Haonan42.703Q
63Nicola Rodigari42.819q
64Pieter Gysel42.980
71Apolo Anton Ohno42.836Q
72Roberto Serra43.120Q
73Takafumi Nishitani43.212
74Paul Stanley43.486

Quarterfinals

The top two finishers in each of the four quarterfinals advanced to the semifinals.
;Quarterfinal 1
RankAthleteCountryResultNotes
1Ahn Hyun-soo42.213Q
2Satoru Terao42.471Q
3Cees Juffermans42.515
4Arian Nachbar42.605

;Quarterfinal 2
RankAthleteCountryResultNotes
1Li Juajun43.105Q
2Nicola Rodigari43.701Q
3Peter Darazs1:01.289
4Lee Ho-suk1:22.896

;Quarterfinal 3
RankAthleteCountryResultNotes
1Éric Bédard42.267Q
2Jon Eley42.424Q
3Roberto Serra42.773
4Li HaonanDQ

;Quarterfinal 4
RankAthleteCountryResultNotes
1Apolo Anton Ohno42.020Q
2François-Louis Tremblay42.110Q
3Wim de Deyne42.979
4Dariusz KuleszaDQ

Semifinals

The top two finishers in each of the two semifinals qualified for the A final, while the third and fourth place skaters advanced to the B Final. In the first semifinal, China's Li Jiajun impeded Britain's Jon Eley, resulting in Li's disqualification, while Eley, who finished third in the race, was advanced to the final.
;Semifinal 1
RankAthleteCountryResultNotes
1François-Louis Tremblay42.261QA
2Apolo Anton Ohno42.400QA
3Jon Eley42.650ADV
4Li JuajunDQ

;Semifinal 2
RankAthleteCountryResultNotes
1Ahn Hyun-soo41.826QA
2Éric Bédard41.950QA
3Satoru Terao42.120QB
4Nicola Rodigari42.131QB

Finals

The five qualifying skaters competed in Final A, while two other raced for 6th place in Final B.
;Final A
RankAthleteCountryResultNotes
Apolo Anton Ohno41.935
François-Louis Tremblay42.002
Ahn Hyun-soo42.089
4Éric Bédard42.093
5Jon Eley42.497

;Final B
RankAthleteCountryResultNotes
6Satoru Terao42.377
7Nicola Rodigari42.398