The season started on 8 November 2013 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and concluded with the final on 16 March 2014 in Heerenveen, Netherlands.
[1][2] In total, six competition weekends were held at six different locations, twelve cups were contested (six for men, and six for women), and 72 races took place.
For the mass start and team pursuit events, skaters who have achieved any one of the above results will qualify.
[1] Every ISU member nation may enter at least one competitor for each distance, subject to the qualification criteria above.
Additionally, skaters placed among the top 36 in the final 2012–13 World Cup, or included in the final qualifying list (including the reserve list) of the 2013 World Single Distance Championships, for the distance category concerned, may be entered.
For the mass start event, a member nation may enter maximum three skaters, all subject to the qualifying criteria above.
For each country and distance category, the number of skaters in the ranking top of the previous year will decide the number of places available in Division A, but the team leader's seeding will decide which skater goes into which division.
[10] On Sunday, 17 November, also in Salt Lake City, Brittany Bowe broke the world record on 1000 metres with a time of 1:12.58.