The men's 500 metre at the 2012 World Short Track Speed Skating Championships took place on 10 March 2012, at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center.
Results
Preliminaries
Top two athletes from each heat qualified for the heats.
Heat 1
Heat 3
Heat 5
Heat 7
Heat 9
Heat 11
Heat 13
Heat 2
Heat 4
Heat 6
Heat 8
Heat 10
Heat 12
Heat 14
Heats
Top two athletes from each heat and the two fastest thirds qualified for the quarterfinals.
Heat 1
Heat 3
Heat 5
Heat 7
Heat 2
Heat 4
Heat 6
Quarterfinals
Top two athletes from each heat qualified for the semifinals.
Heat 1
Heat 3
Heat 2
Heat 4
Semifinals
Top two athletes from each heat qualified for the final.