|
||||
  
 
 |
Oh, no! Not that By
John Newbold In one of the craziest finishes at this Olympics, the U.S. gold medal favorite from Seattle didn't win . . . and it wasn't his fault. Apolo Anton Ohno got caught up in a four-skater pileup and fell 50 yards from the finish line. "This was the best race of my life," Ohno said. "I skated it exactly like I wanted. Unfortunately I went down in the last corner, but this is the sport I trained for. I got a silver medal so I can't complain." Although Ohno was in high spirits at the press conference knowing that he had won the silver medal, you wouldn't have been able to tell from the reaction of the Salt Lake Ice Center crowd. When the replays were shown the crowd filled with many boos. But the nature of short track speed skating is that people bump each other and they fall. It almost always happens. "That's short track," Ohno said of the crash. "That's the sport I live for." The gold medal winner from Australia, Steven Bradbury, didn't get involved in the crash. He finished the race with hands held high as he crossed the finish line. "It's kind of freakish," Bradbury said, "I'm maybe not the most deserving guy to win, but I got the gold medal, and I'm stoked. Someone was definitely looking out for me. It's the nature of the sport but usually not to that extent." Bradbury is the first Australian to win a gold medal in a Winter Olympics and is only the third medal ever for his country. In the crash Ohno suffered a deep gash in his left thigh that required six stitches. Ohno has three more events to skate in including the 1,500 Wednsday. When asked if he would ready, he replied, "Yeah, definitely. I should be good by Wednesday, hopefully."
|
Archived Months:
January
1999 January
2000 January
2001 |
||