Vying for his record-setting eighth Olympic medal, American short track skater Apolo Anton Ohno crossed the finish line in the finals of the men’s 500m short track in second place, but he was later disqualified after officials ruled he interfered with Canadian skater François-Louis Tremblay on the final lap. Canadian Charles Hamelin took home the gold medal while Korean Sung Si-bak took home silver and Tremblay got the bronze.
Ohno was in fourth place on the final lap when he decided to make a move, and that’s when everything got chaotic. Here’s a description of the last lap pile up from Art Thiel at SeattlePI.com:
Sung, trailing Hamelin, began to wobble without contact from other skaters. Ohno, moving up fast behind Hamelin and seeing imminent carnage, put his hand on the hip of third-place Tremblay, who began to fall as well. As Sung and Tremblay hit the ice, Hamelin, who was clipped from behind, straightened up and crossed the finish line sideways, barely ahead of Ohno.
“They were definitely three of the fastest guys,” Apolo Ohno said of his competitors. “In the 500, you have to be up at the front. I was in fourth the whole way, and there was no space to move up. 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 to move up. “Either way I’m happy with how I skated. I have no regrets.”
The charismatic skater wasn’t all humility though, saying “You know, it’s the head Canadian referee out there, and there were two Canadians in the race.”
Ohno would receive some solace later in the evening when he and the other four members of the US 5,000-meter relay team took home the bronze medal, giving him that elusive eighth Olympic medal – two more than Bonnie Blair, the previous American record-holder. His tally for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver was three medals: the 5,000-meter relay bronze, a silver in the 1,500 and another bronze in the 1,000.
Here are some more photos of the final lap of the 500-meter short track race that resulted in his disqualification. Anton Ohno is in the light blue with the number 256 on his helmet, gold medalist Charles Hamelin is the bearded guy in red with the number 205, silver medalist Sung Si-bak is number 244 in dark blue and bronze winner François-Louis Tremblay is in red with the number 208:
Photo: Gerry Kahrmann / Canwest News Service
Photo: Jasper Juinen/Getty Images
Photo: ZumaPress
Photo: Jasper Juinen/Getty Images
Photo: ZumaPress
Photo: Jasper Juinen/Getty Images
Photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images
Photo: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
Photo: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
Photo: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
Photo: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
Photo: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
Photo: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
Photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images
Top Photo: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
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