Speed skating at the 1956 Winter Olympics – Men's 500 metres

Speed skating
at the
1956 Winter Olympics
500 m men
1500 m men
5000 m men
10000 m men

The 500 metres speed skating event was part of the speed skating at the 1956 Winter Olympics programme. The competition was held on naturally frozen ice on the Lake Misurina. It was held on Saturday, 28 January 1956, and started at noon and ended at 1:15 PM.

Forty-seven speed skaters from 17 nations competed.

Medalists

Gold Silver Bronze
 Yevgeny Grishin
Soviet Union (URS)		  Rafayel Grach
Soviet Union (URS)		  Alv Gjestvang
Norway (NOR)

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1956 Winter Olympics.

World record 40.2(*) Soviet Union Yevgeny Grishin Cortina d'Ampezzo/Lake Misurina (ITA) 22 January 1956
Olympic record 43.1 Norway Finn Helgesen St. Moritz (SUI) 31 January 1948

(*) The record was set in a high altitude venue (more than 1000 metres above sea level) and on naturally frozen ice.

Yevgeny Grishin equalizied his own world record.

Results

Yevgeny Grishin set a new world record only six days before this event on the same venue. He equalizied his world record time and won the gold medal.

PlaceSpeed skaterTime
1  Yevgeny Grishin (URS) 40.2 =WR
2  Rafayel Grach (URS) 40.8
3  Alv Gjestvang (NOR) 41.0
4  Yuri Sergeev (URS) 41.1
5  Toivo Salonen (FIN) 41.7
6  Bill Carow (USA) 41.8
7  Colin Hickey (AUS) 41.9
 Bengt Malmsten (SWE) 41.9
9  Matti Hamberg (FIN) 42.2
 Juhani Järvinen (FIN) 42.2
11  Shinkichi Takemura (JPN) 42.4
 Johnny Werket (USA) 42.4
13  Finn Hodt (NOR) 42.5
 Yrjö Uimonen (FIN) 42.5
15  Bertil Eng (SWE) 42.6
16  Sigmund Søfteland (NOR) 42.7
17  Hroar Elvenes (NOR) 42.8
 Ken Henry (USA) 42.8
 Yoshitaki Hori (JPN) 42.8
 Bohumil Jauris (TCH) 42.8
21  Johnny Cronshey (GBR) 42.9
22  Taketsugu Asazaka (JPN) 43.1
 Guido Citterio (ITA) 43.1
 Gerard Maarse (NED) 43.1
25  Gordon Audley (CAN) 43.2
 Raymond Gilloz (FRA) 43.2
 Don McDermott (USA) 43.2
28  Jang Yeong (KOR) 43.5
 Vladimír Kolář (TCH) 43.5
30  Jaroslav Doubek (TCH) 43.6
 Kiyotaka Takabayashi (JPN) 43.6
32  Franz Offenberger (AUT) 43.8
33  Guido Caroli (ITA) 43.9
34  Jo Yun-Sik (KOR) 44.0
 Helmut Kuhnert (GER) 44.0
36  Ralf Olin (CAN) 44.1
37  Ernst Biel (AUT) 44.2
 Kees Broekman (NED) 44.2
 Sigvard Ericsson (SWE) 44.2
40  Erich Kull (SUI) 44.3
41  Kurt Eminger (AUT) 44.4
42  Gunnar Ström (SWE) 44.7
43  Wim de Graaff (NED) 44.9
44  Alex Connell (GBR) 45.2
45  John Hearn (GBR) 45.9
—  Yuri Mikhaylov (URS) DNF
 Johnny Sands (CAN) DNF

Johnny Sands and Yuri Mikhaylov did not finish after a fall.

See also

References