VANCOUVER — Apolo Anton Ohno was disqualified in the 500-meter short track speedskating final Friday night, apparently for causing a crash in the final turn.
Ohno crossed the finish line second behind Canada’s Charles Hamelin, whose momentum spun him into the middle of the ice as the race ended.
Ohno was in last place when he tried to go inside of Canadian Francois-Louis Tremblay to move up on the final turn. The American’s right leg appeared to hit Tremblay and sent him crashing into the padding.
South Korea’s Sung Si-bak also went down, although it appeared he lost his balance.
After several minutes of discussion, during which Ohno skated calmly around the ice, the referees DQ’d him. He threw up his arms as if to say, “What can you do?” and smiled before leaving.
Ohno had gotten by crashes in both of his previous heats to advance to the 500 final, which he won four years ago in Turin.
Hamelin won the gold. Sung took silver and Tremblay got bronze.
Ohno and the U.S. team later won a bronze in the men’s 5,000 relay. Canada won the event and South Korea was second.
The 27-year-old from Seattle became America’s most decorated Winter Olympian at these Games, winning a silver in the 1,500 after two South Koreans crashed in the final turn, and a bronze in the 1,000.
On the women’s side, Wang Meng of China won her third gold medal of the Games, holding off American Katherine Reutter in the women’s 1,000 meters.
Wang added to her golds in the 500 and 3,000 relay. Her teammate, Zhou Yang, also was going for a third gold medal but was bumped out in a a furious bid for the front with three laps to go; it didn’t matter, she was disqualified for her daring move in Friday night’s race.
Reutter won her second medal of the Vancouver Games, having also been part of the U.S. relay team that won bronze. South Korea’s Park Seung-hi claimed the bronze.
“I find the 1,000(-meter) is almost as unpredictable as the 500, because it’s just as fast but twice as long,” Reutter said after a Thursday practice. “It’s a really good test of your endurance and your skills. Because of that, everyone can always surprise you.”
The Americans clinched their best Winter Olympics when Reutter won her silver. That was actually only the team’s 33rd, but one each is guaranteed to go to the men’s hockey team and the men’s team pursuit squad in speedskating. Both have advanced to gold medal matches in which they can get no worse than silver.
The 35 medals are one more than the U.S. won at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.
If all goes well the next two days, the U.S. will lead the overall medals standings for only the second time, and the first since 1932 in Lake Placid.
