Speed skating at the 1976 Winter Olympics – Men's 500 metres

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:[3][4]

World record	Yevgeny Kulikov (URS)	36.17	Alma-Ata, Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union	29 March 1975
Olympic record	Erhard Keller (FRG)	39.44	Sapporo, Japan	5 February 1972

The following new Olympic record was set.

Date	Athlete	Time	OR	WR
10 February	Yevgeny Kulikov (URS)	39.17	OR

[1]

Rank	Pair	Lane	Athlete	Country	Time	Difference	Notes
	3	o	Yevgeny Kulikov	Soviet Union	39.17	–	OR
	10	i	Valery Muratov	Soviet Union	39.25	+0.08
	10	o	Dan Immerfall	United States	39.54	+0.37
4	8	i	Mats Wallberg	Sweden	39.56	+0.39
5	2	i	Peter Mueller	United States	39.57	+0.40
6	7	o	Jan Bazen	Netherlands	39.78	+0.61
	4	o	Arnulf Sunde	Norway	39.78	+0.61
8	13	i	Andrey Malikov	Soviet Union	39.85	+0.68
9	13	o	Oloph Granath	Sweden	39.93	+0.76
10	14	i	Jim Chapin	United States	40.09	+0.92
11	11	i	Tom Overend	Canada	40.22	+1.05
	5	o	Masaki Suzuki	Japan	40.22	+1.05
13	5	i	Johan Granath	Sweden	40.25	+1.08
14	4	i	Gaétan Boucher	Canada	40.53	+1.36
15	6	y	Pertti Niittylä	Finland	40.65	+1.48
16	11	o	Norio Hirate	Japan	40.85	+1.68
	1	o	Archie Marshall	Great Britain	40.85	+1.68
18	15	o	Mikio Oyama	Japan	40.90	+1.73
19	8	o	Hans van Helden	Netherlands	40.91	+1.74
	1	i	Emmanuel Michon	France	40.91	+1.74
21	12	o	Kay Arne Stenshjemmet	Norway	40.94	+1.77
22	6	i	Lee Yeong-ha	South Korea	41.08	+1.91
23	2	o	Bruno Toniolli	Italy	41.44	+2.27
24	9	o	Harald Oehme	East Germany	41.54	+2.37
25	12	o	Colin Coates	Australia	41.77	+2.60
26	7	i	Berend Schabus	Austria	42.33	+3.16
27	9	i	Heinz Steinberger	Austria	43.28	+4.11
28	14	o	Jan Egil Storholt	Norway	1:18.00	+38.83
-	3	o	Horst Freese	West Germany	DNF