Despite Apolo Anton Ohno's disqualification

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VANCOUVER - Apolo Ohno thought he had earned yet another silver medal last night, but he only had himself another short-track controversy.

Ohno was disqualified in the 500-meter race final after subtly bumping Francois-Louis Tremblay of Canada, causing Tremblay to crash just before the finish line. Instead, Charles Hamelin captured gold, Sung Si-Bak of Korea was second and Tremblay won bronze. Sung also fell in the final yards, then scrambled across the line.

"There was no space to move up," Ohno said. "I kept waiting and waiting and waiting and on the last corner I ran up on the Canadian guy. I put my hand up so I wouldn't run into him. There was just no space.

"You know, it's the head Canadian referee out there and there were two Canadians in the race," Ohno said.

The night was far from a total loss for the Americans, however. Ohno and his teammates won a bronze behind Canada and Korea in a wacky 5,000-meter relay finish, with Ohno on the final leg. And Katherine Reutter of Champagne, Ill., captured silver in the women's 1,000-meter race, assuring the U.S. Olympic team of a record medal haul in Vancouver.

Reutter, 21, slipped in behind gold medal winner Wang Meng of China with one lap left in the race and held off challenges from Park Seung-Hi of Korea and Zhou Yang of China, who was disqualified.

"I feel like everything I've ever done has paid off," Reutter said. "This is my moment I've been dreaming of. I thought I might be bawling (if I won a medal), but it was just this explosion of happiness. I have put so much of myself into my sport, more than I ever thought I could."

Reutter became something of a national celebrity after she had Stephen Colbert autograph her thigh on his "Comedy Central" show. She is from the same town as Bonnie Blair, and was inspired to become a speedskater when Blair visited her high school.

As for Ohno, he went against the top three 500-meter skaters in the world in last night's final. He skated last for most of the race before making his desperate move coming off the final turn. According to the referee, Michel Verrault, Ohno had been a bit too desperate.

This was never supposed to be Ohno's strongest event, and the qualifying heats were typically crazy adventures as well. As an older skater, his sprinting speed was in question. He came into the race ranked only ninth in the world at 500 meters, and already appeared in trouble in a quarterfinal heat, skating behind the pack in fourth and last.

But short track is short track, and Thibaut Fauconnet of France lost an edge and took out Tyson Heung just in front of Ohno.

Ohno successfully hurdled both bodies and moved easily onto the semifinal, where he ran into an extremely difficult draw - against two Koreans and Tremblay, ranked second in the world.

He persevered, however. Lee Ho-Suk of Korea lost his balance on a straightaway and went down. Then Ohno sling-shotted himself with two laps to go and held on to finish first, qualifying for the final.

After Reutter took silver and the relay team bronze, the U.S. Olympic team was assured of surpassing its all-time record medal count of 34 attained at Salt Lake in 2002. The Americans already have 34 medals, and will win two more in the finals of long-track team pursuit and men's hockey.

The all-time record by any country is 36 medals, held by Germany at Salt Lake, a record the Americans will at least tie here. The U.S. is trying to become the first team since Germany in 1976 at Innsbruck to lead a Winter Olympics, wire to wire, in total medals.

The U.S. still has additional shots at medals with Bode Miller in the slalom today, and from its four-man bobsled team, which stands in first place after two of four runs.

Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/winter_olympics_2010/2010/02/27/2010-02-27_despite_ohno_dq_two_more_medals.html