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Ohno finally turns on for skating medals
By Gib Twyman
Deseret News staff writer
CALGARY — The guy who had been something of a whisper for two days in the CMA Canada International Skating Union Short-Track Speedskating World Cup ended with a bang you could almost hear echoing to February.
Apolo Anton Ohno, defending World Cup overall champ, 3-time U.S. Short-Track king, America's best hope for gold when the 2002 Winter Games begin Feb. 8 in Salt Lake City — and just, generally, flat-out The Man for Uncle Sam in the sport of turning left hard and skating like red-white-and-blue blazes — finally looked like all those things Saturday.
Whirling like a madman into the corners and passing the opposition through impossible cracks in the almost spooky manner that has become his trademark, the 19-year-old Seattle native claimed the 1000-meter gold medal with a time of 1 minute, 29.397 seconds.
Then, in what essentially was a walk-in-the-park 3000 meters, he turned on the steam in the final three of 27 laps to take that silver medal in 5 minutes, 37.942 seconds. That jacked him to No. 2 overall for the meet at the Olympic Oval on the campus of the University of Calgary.
"He is, after all, Apolo Ohno," U.S. team leader Jack Gorrell said afterward. "Everyone else, frankly, is not."
For the first couple days here, Ohno was no Ohno either, exactly.
First, the entire American squad was fishing for its footing after missing the first two World Cup events in Asia in the wake of the Sep. 11 terrorist attacks. Then, Ohno's training has been curtailed by a stubborn sore muscle in his lower back. That affected his power and technique.
"It's kept him from staying over his hips and going into the turns as hard as he'd like," U.S. Coach Susan Ellis said.
Which meant Ohno couldn't quite plaster his left earlobe to the ice the way he normally does, carving the insane turns short-trackers do in the unforgiving tightness of a 111-meter oval.
But heat by heat, he kept finding his groove and strength and when it got down to nitty-gritty time in the 1000, he was gritty and everyone else settled for nitty. He blew past Korea's formidable duo, Kim Dong-Sung (1000 gold medalist at Nagano) and Lee Seung-Jae, currently ranked 1-2 in overall World Cup Standings, as well as Marc Gagnon, Canada's four-time world champ and double-Olympic medalist.
"Sure, it was huge to medal," said Ohno, sporting a "Salt Lake Fire Department" T-shirt after his cool-down and doping test. "You've got to show the rest of the world your face. Short-track is about the psychological edge as much as anything."
Rusty Smith took a beating from bumping competitors in his semifinal and got no relief from judges. He still could say he posted the fastest 1000 of the day with a 1:28.579 in his preliminary.
Daniel Weinstein, battling a chest cold and equipment questions, exited the 1000 early, finishing fourth and last in his heat.Tom O'Hare replaced Weinstein in the 5000 relay, in which the U.S. appeared to nab the silver medal, before being disqualified for bumping. Japan won the event in 6 minutes, 57.751 seconds.
Korea's Kim took the men's 3000 in a virtual crawl and Ohno edged Italy's Nicola Rodigari, in third.
China's Yang (A) Yang dominated, taking the 1000 — her second gold to go with a silver. Ko Gi-Hyun beat Yang in the 3000 title; the Korean team of Choi Min-Kyung, Joo Min-Jin, Park Hye-Won and Choi Eun-Kyung won the 3000 relay.
E-mail: gtwyman@desnews.com
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October 21, 2001
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