500 metres, Women

Based on the results earlier in the season, only one woman could win the Olympic 500 m title. Defending champion Catriona Le May Doan had absolutely dominated the event in the 2001-2002 season. She had won all six World Cup races, bettering the World Record twice during competition in Calgary. She had also won the distance twice en route to winning the World Sprint Championships. In addition, she was also the 1998, 1999 and 2001 World Champion. During the season, several women had made the podium behind the Canadian, notably Sabine Völker (Germany), Andrea Nuyt (Netherlands) and Svetlana Zhurova. Based on results of past seasons, Monique Garbrecht-Enfeldt (Germany) was also highly considered.

In the first run, Le May opened in a blistering 10.22, and only narrowly missed her 37.22 world record with 37.30. In the following pair, veteran Garbrecht-Enfeldt came remarkably close to the leading mark, with 37.34, being followed by Nuyt at two tenths. These three women were in medal positions at the end of day one, with Zhurova and Völker not far from the bronze medal. The first of these medal hopefuls to skate the second run was Völker, who improved her first run time by 0.05 to 37.57. Both Zhurova and Nuyt then performed much worse than on their first attempt, both falling in the overall standings in favor of Völker. The final run was between the two leaders. As in 1998 Le May won the title, copying her Nagano performance closely by winning both runs, narrowly in the first and more clearly in the second.