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.
Jong Kwang Bom was the youngest competitor in the field at 16 years old, two years younger than fellow debutant Hwang Dae-heon and another year younger than Pavel Sitnikov, Shaoang Liu, and Aleksandr Shulginov. Charles Hamelin was the veteran in the field, making his fourth appearance at the Olympic Games at the age of 33, though the milestone of their fourth Olympic Games was also reached by Viktor Knoch and Yuri Confortola. Hamelin was only a year older than Thibaut Fauconnet, who was due to start at his third Olympic Games. The Olympic champion of 2014 Viktor An did not compete in 2018, though silver medalist Wu Dajing did come back, and was one of the favorites for the medals. 2014 bronze medalist Charle Cournoyer was not selected for the shortest distance, but did compete in the men's 1000 metres.
Wu Dajing completed his collection of Olympic medals, after winning a bronze medal in the men's relay and a silver medal in the sprint distance in 2014, and he would have another chance for a medal later in the men's relay. Hwang Dae-heon won his first Olympic medal at his Olympic debut, and his compatriot Lim Hyo-jun ensured a second Korean speed skater on the podium. The bronze medalist in the 500 metres won his second Olympic medal within two weeks, after he had also won the title in the 1500 metres. The Olympic champion of the 1000 metres Samuel Girard just missed out on his second Olympic medal in a toe-to-toe battle with Lim, while Shaolin Sandor Liu won the B final to equal his best Olympic result yet with a fifth place, just ahead of Ren Ziwei, Daan Breeuwsma, and Ryosuke Sakazume.
