The women's 500 m speed skating competition for the 2006 Winter Olympics was held in Turin, Italy.

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

34-year-old Russian Svetlana Zhurova, who left speed skating in 2003 to become a mother and completed in her fourth Olympics after returning to the sport in 2004, became the oldest woman to win a speed skating gold medal by clocking times of 38.23 and 38.34.

In the last pair of the second round, she beat Chinese Wang Manli, runner-up in the first round with 38.31, by 0.13 seconds to secure the gold medal.

Skaters from Asia occupied seven of the top nine places.