Speed skating at the 1924 Winter Olympics – Men's 500 metres

Men's 500 metres speed skating at the I Olympic Winter Games
Gold medallist Charles Jewtraw in 1921
Venue	Stade Olympique de Chamonix
Date	26 January 1924
Competitors	27 from 10 nations
Winning time	44.0 OR
Medalists
Charles Jewtraw  United States Oskar Olsen  Norway Roald Larsen  Norway Clas Thunberg  Finland

Speed skating at the 1924 Winter Olympics
500 m	men
1500 m	men
5000 m	men
10,000 m	men
All-round	men

The 500 metres speed skating event at the 1924 Winter Olympics was held on 26 January 1924 at the Stade Olympique de Chamonix. One of four speed skating events to be contested at these Games, this was the first event ever contested at the Winter Olympics. The event was won by American Charles Jewtraw who became the first Winter Olympics gold medallist.^[1]

Summary

The event required competitors to skate one and quarter laps of the 400 metre track. Under the rules of the International Skating Union, athletes raced in pairs in a straight time-trial event. Prior to the event, the pairs were determined by the drawing of lots. With 31 speed skaters from 13 nations due to compete, this was reduced to 27 from 10 nations after the withdrawal of four athletes, including Christfried Burmeister who was due to be Estonia's only representative at the inaugural Winter Games. He did not attend Chamonix but word failed to reach Games organisers in time.^[2] This resulted in a slight reordering of skaters.^[3]

Leading up the Games, the Finnish team was training in Davos where Clas Thunberg had set a time of 43.8 seconds, four tenths slower than Oscar Mathisen's world record.^[1] Mathisen himself was unable to attend the Games due to his status as a professional.^[4] The Americans contested metric events at Saranac Lake where Jewtraw clocked 46.6s. He also set a new world record in the 100 yard event in 9.4 seconds. Whilst Roald Larsen of Norway skated 44.6s in Frogner.^[1]

Joe Moore of the United States and Eric Blomgren of Sweden became the first athletes to ever compete at the Winter Olympics, with Moore setting the first Olympic record covering the distance in 45.6 seconds. Asser Wallenius of Finland, bettered Moore's time by 0.6 second to move into first position with 11 skaters to go. Next to skate was the eventual silver medallist Norway's Oskar Olsen who crossed the line in 44.2 seconds. The defending world champion Clas Thunberg and Norway's Roald Larsen had to settle for sharing the bronze medal with a time of 44.8 seconds. The gold medal performance came from pair 15 where American Jewtraw was up against Charles Gorman. The Canadian took the lead, but was soon overtaken by Jewtraw finishing in a time of a 44 seconds flat.^[1]

Jewtraw coming from a poor family found the sport expensive but found sponsorship from Lake Placid businessman Jack Mabbit. He had retired before the 1924 Games but made a comeback to compete. After the gold medal, he skated two more Olympic races before retiring once more.^[1]

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Oscar Mathisen (NOR)	43.4	Davos, Switzerland	17 January 1914
Olympic record	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

The following records were set during this competition.

Date	Round	Athlete	Country	Time	Record
26 January 1924	Pair 1	Joe Moore	United States	45.6	OR
26 January 1924	Pair 11	Asser Wallenius	Finland	45.0	OR
26 January 1924	Pair 12	Oskar Olsen	Norway	44.2	OR
26 January 1924	Pair 15	Charles Jewtraw	United States	44.0	OR

Results

The event began at 10:00.^[3][5]

Rank	Pair	Name	Country	Time	Time behind	Notes
	15	Charles Jewtraw	United States	44.0	—	OR
	12	Oskar Olsen	Norway	44.2	+0.2	OR
=	17	Roald Larsen	Norway	44.8	+0.8	[lower-alpha 1]
	14	Clas Thunberg	Finland
5	11	Asser Wallenius	Finland	45.0	+1.0	OR
6	13	Axel Blomqvist	Sweden	45.2	+1.2
7	15	Charles Gorman	Canada	45.4	+1.4
=8	1	Joe Moore	United States	45.6	+1.6	OR
	13	Harald Strøm	Norway
10	10	Julius Skutnabb	Finland	46.4	+2.4
11	1	Eric Blomgren	Sweden	46.6	+2.6
12	6	Harry Kaskey	United States	47.0	+3.0
13	5	Sigurd Moen	Norway	47.2	+3.2
14	12	Bill Steinmetz	United States	47.8	+3.8
15	3	Léonhard Quaglia	France	48.4	+4.4
16	18	Alberts Rumba	Latvia	48.8	+4.8	[lower-alpha 2]
17	4	Leon Jucewicz	Poland	49.6	+5.6
18	3	Albert Hassler	France	50.6	+6.6
19	14	Louis De Ridder	Belgium	52.8	+8.8
20	11	André Gegout	France	53.2	+9.2
21	17	George de Wilde	France	54.8	+10.8	[lower-alpha 3]
22	8	Gaston Van Hazebroeck	Belgium	55.8	+11.8
=23	8	Frederick Dix	Great Britain	56.4	+12.4
	10	Philippe Van Volckxsom	Belgium
25	5	Bernard Sutton	Great Britain	1:00.8	+16.8
26	6	Marcel Moens	Belgium	1:02.2	+18.2
27	4	Cyril Horn	Great Britain	1:04.4	+20.4
	2	Christfried Burmeister	Estonia			DNS
	7	Albert Tebbit	Great Britain			DNS
	9	A. K. Spengler	Switzerland			DNS
	9	G. Locatelli	Italy			DNS

Officials

The officials for the events were as follows.^[3]

Notes

References