From the archives: Apolo Ohno fails to medal in 5,000-meter relay

This story was originally published in Newsday on February 24, 2002

The fast and the furious gathered last night at Salt Lake Ice Center. And just as suddenly were gone. Yup, short-track speedskating was in session again. The marquee, had there been one, would have read:Apolo Anton Ohno vs. Kim Dong-Sung. Good vs. evil. Or evil vs. good. Take your pick.

The only problem with the setup was the punch line: Neither reached the final of the 500-meter sprint.

Kim, the reigning overall World Cup champion from Korea and Ohno's foil in the 1,000 earlier in the week, lost an edge while leading his semifinal and never recovered. Ohno, the 19-year-old sensation from Seattle who won the 1,000 at Kim's expense, was disqualified in his semifinal for impeding after colliding with Japan's Satoru Terao.

That left Ohno 3-for-3 in his Olympic debut: All three of his individual events ended with crashes and/or disqualifications.

In the absence of the leading contenders - top-ranked Li Jiajun of China fell in his quarterfinal - Canada finished 1-2. Marc Gagnon won the gold in an Olympic-record 41.802 seconds and teammate Jonathan Guilmette took the silver. Rusty Smith of Sunset Beach, Calif., won the bronze after leading until the final backstretch.

"It's a great feeling right now, to go out and skate and get a bronze medal, bringing it home for the United States," Smith said. "With everything going on right now, it's great to be an American."

Canada capped its stellar evening with a victory in the 5,000 relay; every other team fell once. The U.S. quartet of Ohno, Smith, Dan Weinstein and Ron Biondo, the reigning world champions, finished fourth after Smith went down.

The evening left Ohno well short of predictions that he might win four gold medals, and he lost a chance to become the only U.S. male besides Eric Heiden to win at least three medals in one Winter Games. But his haul - one gold, one silver - wasn't bad, given that no American man had won an individual Olympic medal in short-track.

"I'm not disappointed at all; I got a silver and gold in my first Olympics," Ohno said. "This is definitely one of the highlights of my career. It's real hard to walk away not feeling good about that."

The evening began with the delicious promise of cartoon villains and pinball-style action, set against a backdrop of dueling emotions: national angst vs. national pride, all of it centered on Ohno.

His Olympic odyssey has been bathed in controversy, beginning with charges, supported by Biondo, that Ohno conspired to fix a race during the Olympic trials in December. A lawsuit was withdrawn for lack of evidence but the damage to Ohno's reputation was done. Until he got to Salt Lake City.

A series of on-ice skirmishes restored his good name by showcasing his humility, then his excellence. Ohno had the 1,000 won until a demolition- derby finish relegated him to silver. He never complained, saying in effect, "That's racing."

Then came the 1,500, which Ohno won after Kim was disqualified for cross-tracking when Ohno seemed to have a passing lane on the final lap. That unleashed a torrent of protest and one official objection.

The U.S. Olympic Committee took down its Web server Wednesday night when it was inundated with more than 16,000 angry e-mails, the more threatening of which were turned over to the FBI.

In the meantime, Korea protested Kim's disqualification, but its appeal was dismissed yesterday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The upshot was that Ohno was assigned an armed Utah state trooper for protection.

The tension carried over to Saturday night. A Korean contingent of athletes and coaches, dressed in team uniforms, took perch just above center ice and began chanting "Kim Dong-Sung! Kim Dong-Sung!" when their man appeared for his quarterfinal. Seconds later, came the upper-deck rejoinder: "USA! USA!" And for two rounds, both men cruised, anticipation building about another face-to-face meeting. But just like that, it was over. Despite the disappointment, Ohno was upbeat.

"This puts it all to rest," Ohno said. "I came here, I believe I did an excellent job. So many people supported me, all my friends and family in the stands ... My first Games and I got two medals - there's nothing better than that."