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

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.
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.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
500 meters (1 race)
| World record | Hiroyasu Shimizu (JPN) | 34.32 | Salt Lake City, United States | March 10, 2001 |
| Olympic record | Hiroyasu Shimizu (JPN) | 35.59 | Nagano, Japan | February 10, 1998 |
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
| Date | Round | Athlete | Country | Time | OR |
| February 11 | Race 1 | Kuniomi Haneishi | Japan | 35.15 | OR |
| February 11 | Race 1 | Kip Carpenter | United States | 34.68 | OR |
| February 11 | Race 1 | Hiroyasu Shimizu | Japan | 34.61 | OR |
| February 11 | Race 1 | Casey FitzRandolph | United States | 34.42 | OR |

## Results

| Rank | Name | Country | Race 1 | Race 2 | Total | Difference |
| | Casey FitzRandolph | United States | 34.42 OR | 34.81 | 69.23 | – |
| | Hiroyasu Shimizu | Japan | 34.61 | 34.65 | 69.26 | +0.03 |
| | Kip Carpenter | United States | 34.68 | 34.79 | 69.47 | +0.24 |
| 4 | Gerard van Velde | Netherlands | 34.72 | 34.77 | 69.49 | +0.26 |
| 5 | Lee Kyou-hyuk | South Korea | 34.74 | 34.85 | 69.59 | +0.36 |
| 6 | Joey Cheek | United States | 34.78 | 34.82 | 69.60 | +0.37 |
| 7 | Mike Ireland | Canada | 34.77 | 34.83 | 69.60 | +0.37 |
| 8 | Toyoki Takeda | Japan | 35.00 | 34.81 | 69.81 | +0.58 |
| 9 | Jan Bos | Netherlands | 35.14 | 34.72 | 69.86 | +0.63 |
| 10 | Erben Wennemars | Netherlands | 35.00 | 34.89 | 69.89 | +0.66 |
| 11 | Dmitry Lobkov | Russia | 35.09 | 35.01 | 70.10 | +0.87 |
| 12 | Kuniomi Haneishi | Japan | 35.15 | 34.96 | 70.11 | +0.88 |
| 13 | Sergey Klevchenya | Russia | 35.10 | 35.18 | 70.28 | +1.05 |
| 14 | Manabu Horii | Japan | 35.30 | 35.02 | 70.32 | +1.09 |
| 15 | Janne Hänninen | Finland | 35.18 | 35.15 | 70.33 | +1.10 |
| 16 | Pawel Abratkiewicz | Poland | 35.40 | 35.04 | 70.44 | +1.21 |
| 17 | Choi Jae-bong | South Korea | 35.45 | 35.12 | 70.57 | +1.34 |
| 18 | Dmitry Dorofeyev | Russia | 35.48 | 35.27 | 70.75 | +1.52 |
| 19 | Michael Künzel | Germany | 35.47 | 35.37 | 70.84 | +1.61 |
| 20 | Pat Bouchard | Canada | 35.54 | 35.34 | 70.88 | +1.65 |
| 21 | Li Yu | China | 35.62 | 35.35 | 70.97 | +1.74 |
| 22 | Tomasz Świst | Poland | 35.72 | 35.55 | 71.27 | +2.04 |
| 23 | Davide Carta | Italy | 35.70 | 35.69 | 71.39 | +2.16 |
| 24 | Eric Brisson | Canada | 35.86 | 35.68 | 71.54 | +2.31 |
| 25 | Park Jae-man | South Korea | 36.05 | 35.91 | 71.96 | +2.73 |
| 26 | Christian Breuer | Germany | 36.50 | 35.57 | 72.07 | +2.84 |
| 27 | Ids Postma | Netherlands | 36.41 | 36.08 | 72.49 | +3.26 |
| 28 | Marc Pelchat | United States | 37.59 | 34.99 | 72.58 | +3.35 |
| 29 | Andriy Fomin | Ukraine | 36.26 | 36.38 | 72.64 | +3.41 |
| 30 | Dino Gillarduzzi | Italy | 36.42 | 36.27 | 72.69 | +3.46 |
| 31 | Zsolt Baló | Hungary | 36.24 | 36.69 | 72.93 | +3.70 |
| 32 | Aleksey Khatylyov | Belarus | 37.40 | 37.41 | 74.81 | +5.58 |
| 33 | Kim Cheol-su | South Korea | 73.11 | 35.35 | 108.46 | +39.23 |
| 34 | Yu Fengtong | China | 82.11 | 35.30 | 117.41 | +48.18 |
| 35 | Grunde Njøs | Norway | 97.67 | 35.90 | 133.57 | +64.34 |
| - | Jeremy Wotherspoon | Canada | DNF | 34.63 | - | - |
| - | Ermanno Ioratti | Italy | 36.30 | - | - | - |
| - | Jan Friesinger | Germany | 36.80 | - | - | - |