VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Apolo Anton Ohno found himself a distant fourth on the last turn of the men's 1,500-meter short-track skating final. Seconds later, through no fault or credit of his own, he finished in second, earning his sixth career Olympic medal.
On the final turn, a Korean sweep seemed inevitable, with Lee Jung-Su leading Lee Ho-Suk and Sung Si-Bak. The latter two tangled on the turn, sending both into the pads as Ohno and countryman J.R. Celski skated by. Lee Ho-Suk got disqualified for his trouble, Sung got jack.
That the silver practically dropped in his lap didn't bother Ohno at all, and who can blame him? It takes a ton of effort and skill just to get on the ice, and a little luck doesn't hurt. (Ohno's qualifying heat was a thing of beauty. He hung back for most of the race then turned on the jets with three laps to go, leaving the field behind by almost a second, an eternity in short track.)
"At the end of the race, I hoped for another DQ like how it happened at Salt Lake," Ohno said. He got his first medal at Salt Lake City in 2002 when an accident wiped out all but one skater and Ohno crawled across the line for second, his leg gashed from a skate.
"That's short track," Ohno said after Saturday's final. "Anything is possible." Canada's Olivier Jean is probably thinking the same thing. Jean was in prime position to move the A Final when a skater behind him fell and took him along for the ride. Instead of competing for a medal, Jean winds up advancing to Final B (non-medal) on a technicality.
While that randomness adds appeal to the sport, much like crashes for NASCAR, it tends to make things a lot more random and overshadows the strengths of the sport. Short track has a lot of things going for it: It's amazingly fast, allows for varied strategies and tactics, and everything happens in an attention-deficit-friendly timeframe.
It's just that I found the result unsatisfying. It doesn't feel right that everything can go out the window through no fault of your own, or that a guy in dead last on the final lap can win a gold medal by just staying on his feet.
The problem is -- and here goes your classic media uselessness -- I don't have answer. Is there a way to tone done the randomness? Is it even desirable?
