Last time it was “Oh, no.” This time it was “Oh, my.”
Apolo Anton Ohno won the gold medal in the men’s short-track speedskating 1,500-meter race Wednesday night at the Salt Lake Ice Center in almost as unlikely a manner as he lost the gold Saturday night in the 1,000.
“They can just throw me in the desert and bury me,” Ohno said. “I got a gold medal. I’m good now.”
Ohno crashed to the ice in a multiple-skater pile and crawled across the finish line to take silver Saturday night. This time Ohno, 19, of Seattle, who came into the Winter Games predicted as a possible four-gold-medal winner, won when Dong-Sung Kim of South Korea was disqualified for “cross-tracking,” or interfering with him, in the final meters.
Ohno skated cautiously for most of the 13 1/2-lap final on the 111-meter track, often placing both hands behind his back and skating at the rear of the six-man group. As the pace quickened and racers used their left hands to balance on the tight turns, Ohno still hung back in fifth. Then, with about two laps to go, Ohno passed three skaters at once and tucked behind Kim.
“That was my strategy,” Ohno said. “I wanted to wait as long as possible because there was a lot of traffic. I made a nice move, set the Korean up real nice, came inside real nice and he just came over on me.”
Three times on the last lap Ohno sought to make a move on the inside but couldn’t get past Kim. On his last try Kim appeared to step in with his left shoulder, and Ohno threw up his hands and shortened his step.
Kim glided across the line first. Fans booed. Unlike Saturday, when Ohno took his costly crash philosophically, he began to complain.
Kim, a 1998 Nagano gold medalist in the 1,000, grabbed a South Korean flag and waved it. However, when he was swiftly disqualified, Kim dropped the flag on the ice and put his hands on his hips in a pose of disgust.
“He definitely came over on me,” Ohno said. “Good call.”
Not everyone thought so. South Korean coach Myung-Kyu Jun said he complained to judges about the disqualification, “but they did not accept it. I told Kim he was champion because he finished the race before Ohno.”
And Italian fourth-place finisher Fabio Carta said it was “absurd” that Kim had been disqualified.
When Ohno realized he had won gold, he threw his arms in the air in response to a monstrous roar from the 15,000-plus fans, then folded his hands on top of his yellow helmet. Ohno then skated to center ice, dropped to his knees and raised his hands over his head in celebration.
Ohno’s winning time was 2 minutes 18.541 seconds. Jiajun Li of China took silver in 2:18.731 and Marc Gagnon of Canada won bronze in 2:18.806.
As he accepted his gold medal, Ohno, who removed his trademark headband for the ceremony, mouthed the words to “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and a broad smile creased his face.
At no time during the hard night of racing, which involved heats and semifinals to reduce the 31-man field, did Ohno show any effects from the six-stitch cut he received in the accident Saturday night.
Ohno’s U.S. teammate, Rusty Smith, 22, of Sunset Beach, Calif., advanced to the semis easily but failed to qualify. Smith, who ended up in the consolation final–and won it–was sick.
“I wasn’t even sure I could get out of bed this morning,” Smith said. “I’ve been really sick the past few days. To be able to get up and actually compete felt pretty good.”
The South Korean women triumphed in the 3,000-meter relay ahead of China (silver) and Canada (bronze). The U.S. women were in the consolation final, where they placed third.
Heats also were conducted to whittle the 28-racer field in the women’s 1,000 meters, with the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals to be completed Saturday night on the last night of short-track competition in the Games. The men will contest the 500 meters and 5,000-meter relay that night. Ohno is in both races.
Caroline Hallisey of Natick, Mass., qualified second in her heat without much difficulty. Erin Porter of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., however, wiped out with two laps to go in her heat and did not advance.
“Erin stepped back too far and fell on her own,” U.S. short-track coach Susan Ellis said.
