Golden child

Ohno comes through in another controversial finish

SALT LAKE CITY -- Pouty kids in figure skates haven't cornered the market in controversy, it seems. The Salt Lake Ice Center was the setting for another soap opera Wednesday night, and the goateed men of short track -- that supposed stronghold of old-fashioned Olympic meritocracy, with its tournament-based format -- were its players. Just minutes after his second second-place finish in three days, Apolo Anton Ohno was named the 1,500-meter default winner over first-place finisher Kim Dong-sung , who was disqualified for interfering with Ohno's attempt to pass him on the last lap. As a jubilant Ohno skated victory circles around Kim, who embarrassingly had toted his country's flag onto the ice before being slapped with the infraction, at least one pierced eyebrow was being raised behind the velvet curtain backstage.

"Ohno had a half-shot at making the pass, decided he wasn't going to make it, and the Korean defended his line because he didn't want to lose his position," said Australia's Steven Bradbury , a non-finalist who had skated to gold in Sunday's 1,000-meter final in the wake of the three-skater pileup which claimed Ohno. "The call could have gone either way. In many ways, [Kim] was unlucky."

Fourth-place finisher Fabio Carta was less measured. "We should use a rifle on Ohno," declared the Italian. "He is a good actor."

Certainly, Ohno's performance was jam-packed with gestures that had the already-partisan crowd calling for Kim's head. After the race and before the ruling, Ohno pointed his finger at the temporarily exultant Kim and swiveled his head toward no one in particular as if to say, What does this guy think he's doing? That was just one postrace pantomime, seemingly for the sake of the judges. But Ohno calls the hands-up signal that he made when Kim allegedly cut him off during the race an act of survival, not showmanship. "I was trying to go inside when I saw the Korean coming over on me," said Ohno. "I had to stand up, slow down, or else I'd be hit."

Which was the one thing the four-medal hopeful wanted to avoid this go-round. Ohno skated this race on a half-healed inner-thigh gash incurred when Korea's Ahn Hyun-soo accidentally took him (and most of the field, excluding Bradbury) out of Sunday's 1,000-meter race. Short-track athletes like Rusty Smith of the U.S. found a silver lining in that retelevised mélee in that it called attention to the low-profile sport. Perhaps the same can be said for the latest turn of events, but new devotees of what seems on the surface to be hard-and-fast, head-to-head competition are sure to be freshly bewildered at the sport's subjective dark side.

Unscathed and finally golden, Ohno said he didn't care who was whispering in the wings Wednesday. As he blurted out not long after he stepped off the ice, "They can just go throw me in the desert and bury me. I've got the gold. I'm good now."

A little dramatic, perhaps, but the relief was genuine.

Sports Illustrated writer-reporter Kelley King is in Utah covering the Olympics for the Sports Illustrated Olympic Daily and CNNSI.com. Check back regularly for more behind-the-scenes reports from Salt Lake City.

 

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