The competition exists out of four rounds, each with races of four or five skaters. In each round, the top two with the fastest time advance to the next round, with confirmation of a jury. The fastest competitor in the final is the winner of the event.
Kazuki Yoshinaga was the youngest competitor in the field though he was less than a month younger than Hwang Dae-heon, with both speed skaters being a year younger than Pavel Sitnikov, Shaoang Liu, and Aleksandr Shulginov. Charles Hamelin and Yuri Confortola were the veterans in the field, making their fourth appearance at the Olympic Games, with the Canadian achieving the milestone at the age of 33, and with Confortola being two years younger. Between the two, Thibaut Fauconnet was about to turn 33 years old, though he made his third Olympic Games. Two of the 2018 medalists did not return in Pyeongchang, with Viktor An and Vladimir Grigorev not being selected for the competition. Bronze medalist of 2018 Sjinkie Knegt did come back with the title as first Dutch short track speed skater with an Olympic medal already behind his name.
Samuel Girard won his first Olympic medal, after making his Olympic debut with a fourth place in the 1500 metres a few days prior. He became the first-ever Canadian short track speed skater to win the 1000 metres, in either men or women. John-Henry Krueger, who had also made his Olympic debut in Pyeongchang, crowned his Olympic debut with a silver medal, while fellow debutant Seo Yi-ra won bronze to ensure that the traditionally strong Korean delegation was featured on the podium, just ahead of his compatriot and Olympic champion of the 1500 metres Lim Hyo-jun. Ryosuke Sakazume won the B final to finish in fifth place in the event, in a close race against Semen Elistratov and Yuri Confortola. Shaolin Sandor Liu received a penalty in the final to be ranked eighth in the event.
