# 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:
| World record | Jean-Francois Monette (CAN) | 41.163 | Calgary, Canada | 18 October 2003 |
| Olympic record | Marc Gagnon (CAN) | 41.802 | Salt Lake City, United States | 23 February 2002 |
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

| Heat | Rank | Athlete | Country | Result | Notes |
| 1 | 1 | Ahn Hyun-soo | South Korea | 42.960 | Q |
| 1 | 2 | Dariusz Kulesza | Poland | 42.960 | Q |
| 1 | 3 | Tyson Heung | Germany | 43.572 | |
| 2 | 1 | Éric Bédard | Canada | 42.480 | Q |
| 2 | 2 | Jon Eley | Great Britain | 42.511 | Q |
| 2 | 3 | Vyacheslav Kurginyan | Russia | 43.183 | |
| 2 | 4 | Alex McEwan | Australia | 45.173 | |
| 3 | 1 | Wim de Deyne | Belgium | 42.883 | Q |
| 3 | 2 | Arian Nachbar | Germany | 43.006 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | Volodymyr Grygoriev | Ukraine | 43.583 | |
| 3 | 4 | Matus Uzak | Slovakia | 45.173 | |
| 4 | 1 | Satoru Terao | Japan | 42.607 | Q |
| 4 | 2 | François-Louis Tremblay | Canada | 42.779 | Q |
| 4 | 3 | Cees Juffermans | Netherlands | 42.849 | q |
| 4 | 4 | Seo Ho-jin | South Korea | | DSQ |
| 5 | 1 | Li Juajun | China | 42.914 | Q |
| 5 | 2 | Peter Darazs | Hungary | 42.929 | Q |
| 5 | 3 | Mikhail Razhin | Russia | 44.077 | |
| 5 | 4 | Anthony Lobello | United States | 1:13.722 | |
| 6 | 1 | Lee Ho-suk | South Korea | 42.676 | Q |
| 6 | 2 | Li Haonan | China | 42.703 | Q |
| 6 | 3 | Nicola Rodigari | Italy | 42.819 | q |
| 6 | 4 | Pieter Gysel | Belgium | 42.980 | |
| 7 | 1 | Apolo Anton Ohno | United States | 42.836 | Q |
| 7 | 2 | Roberto Serra | Italy | 43.120 | Q |
| 7 | 3 | Takafumi Nishitani | Japan | 43.212 | |
| 7 | 4 | Paul Stanley | Great Britain | 43.486 | |

### Quarterfinals

The top two finishers in each of the four quarterfinals advanced to the semifinals.

#### Quarterfinal 1

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Result | Notes |
| 1 | Ahn Hyun-soo | South Korea | 42.213 | Q |
| 2 | Satoru Terao | Japan | 42.471 | Q |
| 3 | Cees Juffermans | Netherlands | 42.515 | |
| 4 | Arian Nachbar | Germany | 42.605 | |

#### Quarterfinal 2

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Result | Notes |
| 1 | Li Juajun | China | 43.105 | Q |
| 2 | Nicola Rodigari | Italy | 43.701 | Q |
| 3 | Peter Darazs | Hungary | 1:01.289 | |
| 4 | Lee Ho-suk | South Korea | 1:22.896 | |

#### Quarterfinal 3

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Result | Notes |
| 1 | Éric Bédard | Canada | 42.267 | Q |
| 2 | Jon Eley | Great Britain | 42.424 | Q |
| 3 | Roberto Serra | Italy | 42.773 | |
| 4 | Li Haonan | China | | DSQ |

#### Quarterfinal 4

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Result | Notes |
| 1 | Apolo Anton Ohno | United States | 42.020 | Q |
| 2 | François-Louis Tremblay | Canada | 42.110 | Q |
| 3 | Wim de Deyne | Belgium | 42.979 | |
| 4 | Dariusz Kulesza | Poland | | DSQ |

### 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

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Result | Notes |
| 1 | François-Louis Tremblay | Canada | 42.261 | QA |
| 2 | Apolo Anton Ohno | United States | 42.400 | QA |
| 3 | Jon Eley | Great Britain | 42.650 | ADV |
| 4 | Li Juajun | China | | DSQ |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Result | Notes |
| 1 | Ahn Hyun-soo | South Korea | 41.826 | QA |
| 2 | Éric Bédard | Canada | 41.950 | QA |
| 3 | Satoru Terao | Japan | 42.120 | QB |
| 4 | Nicola Rodigari | Italy | 42.131 | QB |

### Finals

The five qualifying skaters competed in Final A, while two other raced for 6th place in Final B.

#### Final A

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Result |
| | Apolo Anton Ohno | United States | 41.935 |
| | François-Louis Tremblay | Canada | 42.002 |
| | Ahn Hyun-soo | South Korea | 42.089 |
| 4 | Éric Bédard | Canada | 42.093 |
| 5 | Jon Eley | Great Britain | 42.497 |

#### Final B

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Result | Notes |
| 6 | Satoru Terao | Japan | 42.377 | |
| 7 | Nicola Rodigari | Italy | 42.398 | |