Wu Dajing competes in the men's 500 meters short track speed skating on February 13, 2022. Photo: Li Hao/Global Times

The long track and short track are considered two forms of speed skating, which has been included in the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games events.

Despite the two sports' falling under the umbrella of "speed skating," they are actually fundamentally different considering their rules and strategies. Long track skating has been a highlighted event since the Olympic Games in 1924, whereas short track made its first Olympic debut in 1994. 

As a sport that puts competitors against the clock, the long track's competition arena has two lines on the ice. So competitors do not normally contact each other, and their results are decided by their speed.  

The short track event requires all skaters depart at the same time at the beginning of the event without lane separations. It is more "aggressive" than the long-track event in terms of the intense competition between skaters in that the winner is decided by who crosses the finish line first.   

In regards to distance, the shortest competition for both the short track and long track is 500m. The men's 10,000m is the longest individual race for the long track, whereas the 1500m is the longest for short track.

The world record for the 500m short track speed skating is held by Chinese skater Wu Dajing with a time of 39.505 seconds.