title: Speed skating at the 1968 Winter Olympics – Men's 500 metres
text: # Speed skating at the 1968 Winter Olympics – Men's 500 metres
  
  The men's 500 metres in speed skating at the 1968 Winter Olympics took place on 14 February, at the L'Anneau de Vitesse.
  
  ## Records
  
  Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:
  
  | World record | Erhard Keller (FRG) | 39.2 | Inzell, West Germany | 28 January 1968 |
  | - | - | - | - | - |
  | Olympic record | Terry McDermott (USA) | 40.1 | Innsbruck, Austria | 4 February 1964 |
  
  ## Results
  
  | Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
  | - | - | - | - |
  | | Erhard Keller | West Germany | 40.3 |
  | | Terry McDermott | United States | 40.5 |
  | | Magne Thomassen | Norway | 40.5 |
  | 4 | Yevgeny Grishin | Soviet Union | 40.6 |
  | 5 | Neil Blatchford | United States | 40.7 |
  | 5 | Arne Herjuaune | Norway | 40.7 |
  | 5 | John Wurster | United States | 40.7 |
  | 8 | Seppo Hänninen | Finland | 40.8 |
  | 8 | Håkan Holmgren | Sweden | 40.8 |
  | 8 | Keiichi Suzuki | Japan | 40.8 |
  | 11 | Herbert Höfl | West Germany | 41.0 |
  | 11 | Anatoly Lepyoshkin | Soviet Union | 41.0 |
  | 13 | Roar Grønvold | Norway | 41.1 |
  | 13 | Ard Schenk | Netherlands | 41.1 |
  | 15 | Hasse Börjes | Sweden | 41.2 |
  | 15 | Heike Hedlund | Sweden | 41.2 |
  | 15 | Masaki Suzuki | Japan | 41.2 |
  | 18 | Valery Muratov | Soviet Union | 41.4 |
  | 19 | John Tipper | Great Britain | 41.5 |
  | 19 | Gerd Zimmermann | West Germany | 41.5 |
  | 21 | Tom Gray | United States | 41.6 |
  | 21 | Valery Kaplan | Soviet Union | 41.6 |
  | 23 | Kimmo Koskinen | Finland | 41.7 |
  | 24 | Manne Lavås | Sweden | 41.8 |
  | 25 | Bob Boucher | Canada | 42.0 |
  | 26 | Otmar Braunecker | Austria | 42.1 |
  | 26 | Elio Locatelli | Italy | 42.1 |
  | 26 | Geoff Stockdale | Great Britain | 42.1 |
  | 29 | Johan Lind | Norway | 42.3 |
  | 30 | Peter Nottet | Netherlands | 42.4 |
  | 31 | Mihály Martos | Hungary | 42.5 |
  | 31 | Günter Traub | West Germany | 42.5 |
  | 33 | Tamio Dejima | Japan | 42.6 |
  | 33 | Jouko Launonen | Finland | 42.6 |
  | 33 | Kees Verkerk | Netherlands | 42.6 |
  | 33 | Pete Williamson | Canada | 42.6 |
  | 37 | Takayuki Hida | Japan | 42.9 |
  | 38 | Luvsanlkhagvyn Dashnyam | Mongolia | 43.0 |
  | 38 | György Martos | Hungary | 43.0 |
  | 40 | Olavi Hjellman | Finland | 43.1 |
  | 41 | Colin Coates | Australia | 43.3 |
  | 41 | Bob Hodges | Canada | 43.3 |
  | 43 | Ruedi Uster | Switzerland | 43.6 |
  | 44 | Hansruedi Widmer | Switzerland | 43.7 |
  | 45 | Michel Thépénier | France | 43.8 |
  | 46 | François Perrenoud | France | 44.1 |
  | - | David Bodington | Great Britain | DNF |
  | - | Jan Bols | Netherlands | DNF |
  