The short-track speedskating controversy that gave American Apolo Anton Ohno a gold medal in the men’s 1,500 meters heated up Thursday when South Korean officials filed protests with every organization available to them and threatened to file a lawsuit over their skater’s disqualification.
At the same time, after staying awake until 4 a.m. with excitement, Ohno serenely defended Australian referee James Hewish’s call as proper. Ohno said he had been tossed out of World Cup races for the same sin of “cross-tracking.”
Ohno, 19, of Seattle, who won a silver medal earlier in the 2002 Winter Games after being leveled in a finishing-stretch crash, was trying to make an inside pass on Kim Dong Sung on Wednesday night at the Delta Center. Skating safely near the rear of the six-man pack for most of the 13 1/2-lap race, Ohno burst into second place, then went after Kim.
Kim, the reigning World Cup champion, seemed to move into Ohno’s path. Ohno cut short his steps, straightened out of his skating tuck and threw his hands in the air.
“That was so we wouldn’t hit, so we wouldn’t collide,” he said Thursday. “I definitely thought he came over on me. I’m not sure what they’re trying to protest. I’m sure the call was right.”
The extent to which South Korean officials disagreed with him quickly became apparent. While Ohno began savoring his gold medal, the U.S. Olympic Committee was flooded with 16,000 e-mail messages in a five-hour period. Then, in an afternoon news conference, top South Korean Olympic officials pledged to do all in their power to overturn the decision.
Park Sung In, the Olympic team leader, said an immediate appeal had been made to the referee to reinstate Kim as gold medalist. That was denied. On Thursday, the delegation sent a formal complaint to the International Skating Union.
The next move, Park said, is to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. If that fails, there is always the U.S. court system, he said.
The delegation already has consulted a Salt Lake City attorney. Park also said such symbolic gestures as refusing to attend Sunday’s Closing Ceremony are not out of the question.
“I firmly believe Kim Dong Sung is the winner,” Park said. “There is no doubt about it. How can this absurd judgment be applied to these young athletes?”
Ohno said moves like Kim’s are common in the sport. Situations like this typically arise, he said, when a skater has swerved wide in a corner and another skater tries to slide inside of him and pass.
When executed correctly to block the challenge, the move is called shutting the door, Ohno said. When it doesn’t work, it’s cross-tracking.
“There’s a thin line between shutting the door and cross-tracking,” he said.
Who is in the right and who is in the wrong is a referee’s judgment call, he said.
Jack Mortell, the U.S. short-track team leader from Evanston, said Hewish, whom he called “an honest and decent gentleman,” got it right.
“There were 15,000 referees in the stands and most saw what I saw,” Mortell said. “That’s a classic example of cross-tracking.”
