Short track speed skating at the 1998 Winter Olympics – Men's 500 metres

The first round was held on 19 February. There were eight heats, with the top two finishers moving on to the quarterfinals.[1]

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	An Yulong	China	43.748	Q
2	Andy Gabel	United States	43.899	Q
3	Yevhen Yakovlev	Ukraine	44.041
4	Han Sang-guk	North Korea	44.206

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	François Drolet	Canada	43.551	Q
2	Kim Dong-sung	South Korea	43.653	Q
3	Martin Johansson	Sweden	44.003

Heat 3

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Dave Versteeg	Netherlands	44.358	Q
2	Feng Kai	China	44.817	Q
3	Maciej Pryczek	Poland	46.652
4	Nicky Gooch	Great Britain	68.907

Heat 4

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Li Jiajun	China	43.831	Q
2	Maurizio Carnino	Italy	43.927	Q
3	Rusty Smith	United States	44.584

Heat 5

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Lee Jun-hwan	South Korea	43.840	Q
2	Marc Gagnon	Canada	43.901	Q
3	Arian Nachbar	Germany	44.882
4	Yun Chol	North Korea	45.014

Heat 6

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Satoru Terao	Japan	42.948	Q OR
2	Chae Ji-hoon	South Korea	43.011	Q
3	Steven Bradbury	Australia	43.766

Heat 7

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Éric Bédard	Canada	43.342	Q
2	Hitoshi Uematsu	Japan	43.428	Q
3	Dan Weinstein	United States	43.492
4	Ludovic Mathieu	France	43.767

Heat 8

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Fabio Carta	Italy	43.000	Q
2	Takafumi Nishitani	Japan	43.348	Q
3	Bruno Loscos	France	43.725
4	Battulgyn Oktyabri	Mongolia	50.466

The top two finishers in each of the four quarterfinals advanced to the semifinals.[1] In quarterfinal 2, American Andy Gabel was advanced, and Canada's François Drolet disqualified.

Quarterfinal 1

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Marc Gagnon	Canada	43.254	Q
2	Hitoshi Uematsu	Japan	43.657	Q
3	Fabio Carta	Italy	43.763
4	Lee Jun-hwan	South Korea	44.417

Quarterfinal 2

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	An Yulong	China	43.384	Q
2	Chae Ji-hoon	South Korea	43.622	Q
3	Andy Gabel	United States	44.124	ADV
–	François Drolet	Canada	DSQ

Quarterfinal 3

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Li Jiajun	China	42.861	Q OR
2	Takafumi Nishitani	Japan	42.980	Q
3	Éric Bédard	Canada	43.113
4	Maurizio Carnino	Italy	43.225

Quarterfinal 4

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Dave Versteeg	Netherlands	43.377	Q
2	Kim Dong-sung	South Korea	43.810	Q
3	Feng Kai	China	44.384
4	Satoru Terao	Japan	65.470

The top two finishers in each of the two semifinals qualified for the A final, while the third and fourth place skaters advanced to the B Final.[1]

Semifinal 1

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Hitoshi Uematsu	Japan	43.697	QA
2	An Yulong	China	43.796	QA
3	Dave Versteeg	Netherlands	43.850	QB
4	Chae Ji-hoon	South Korea	43.864	QB

Semifinal 2

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Takafumi Nishitani	Japan	42.756	QA OR
2	Marc Gagnon	Canada	42.780	QA
3	Kim Dong-sung	South Korea	43.096	QB
4	Andy Gabel	United States	59.811	QB
–	Li Jiajun	China	DSQ

The four qualifying skaters competed in Final A, while four others raced for 5th place in Final B.[1]

Final A

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
	Takafumi Nishitani	Japan	42.862
	An Yulong	China	43.022
	Hitoshi Uematsu	Japan	43.713
4	Marc Gagnon	Canada	75.600

Final B

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
5	Chae Ji-hoon	South Korea	42.832
6	Dave Versteeg	Netherlands	42.933
7	Andy Gabel	United States	43.072
8	Kim Dong-sung	South Korea	43.090