Women’s 3,000 Meter Short Track Speed Skating Relays

Women’s 500 Meter Short Track Speed Skating

Men’s 1,000 Meter Short Track Speed Skating

After watching the grace and power of Men’s Speed Skating, we went to see its hyper cousin: Short Track Speed Skating. While this sport had more in common with roller derby than speed skating, it was as entertaining to watch as its more conventional counterpart. And yes, we saw the now famous Apolo Anton Ohno crash. But, more on that later.

We arrived at the Delta Center only after spending quite a bit of time trying to get through security. In fact, it took so much time to get through security that the Women’s 3,000 Meter Short Track Speed Skating relay had already begun. We arrived just in time to watch the first skater for the United States team take a fall in the second turn of the first lap. Because of her fall, the Americans were soon out of the race. Ultimately, the Chinese finished first in the heat and the United States finished last.

After the 3,000 meter heats had concluded, I took an opportunity to fully appreciate where we were sitting. I knew we were high up, but I didn’t realize that our eye level would be above the top of the jumbotron. But, because our seats were right above an entrance, we had an unobstructed view down to the ice.

The next races were heats for the women’s 500 meter and men’s 1,000 meter races. The information I had read about the event indicated that the Chinese would dominate the women’s race. Sure enough, two of their skaters qualified for the final. But, the most surprising result was the showing of Caroline Hallisey of the United States. Caroline had been the skater who had fallen in the first lap of the 3,000 meter relay. But, she shook that setback off to earn a place in the final.

The men’s qualifying heats also provided a surprise. Apolo Ohon lived up to his pre-race hype by qualifying for the finals. But, the surprise in the qualifying races belonged to Stephen Bradbury of Australia. In the last semi-final race, Bradbury was badly trailing the other three skaters in his heat. In the next to last turn of the race, all three skaters ahead of him crashed. Bradbury skated by the wreckage and finished first, thereby making the finals. I remarked to Dianne that he was one lucky guy.

The women’s final turned out to match pre-race expectations. The crowd was hoping against those expectations when the race began, as was evidenced by the loud cheers for Caroline Hallisey. But, Caroline had spent herself in the qualifying heats and quickly fell to the back of the pack. Despite a strong challenge from Evgenia Radanova of Bulgaria, Yang Yang (A) of China came away with the gold. 

The sight of the NBC cameras lighting up signified that the men’s final was about to begin. The crowd became loud again, anxiously awaiting the expected coronation of Apolo Ohno with a gold medal. As the race began, it didn’t seem that the expectation would be realized. Ohno found himself in the middle of the pack for the first two laps. But, he picked up the pace and began leading the group. For the next several laps, Ohno would continue to lead, although he was constantly challenged by Ahn Hyun-Soo of South Korea. Then, with a lap to go, Li Jiajun of China fell, leaving only four skaters to compete for the three medals. Ohno was in first, barely fighting off Soo’s challenge. Just a hair behind the two of them was Matthieu Turcotte of Canada. And, as was the case with his semi-final heat, Stephen Bradbury was far behind the other three skaters.

At this point, I focused my camera on the finish line, eagerly anticipating a first place finish by Ohno. “This is going to look great on the web page”, I thought. Just as I was wondering when they were going to cross the line, I heard the crowd moan. I looked away from the view finder in my camera, only to see three bodies sprawled across the ice and Stephen Bradbury skating casually across the finish line. I asked Dianne, “What happened?” She said everyone had crashed. As I watched Ohno get up and throw his foot across the finish line, I realized that not only had I not gotten a picture of the crash, but I had also missed getting a picture of Bradbury crossing the finish line.

I’m sure that everyone is aware by now that Soo and Ohno collided in the final turn, taking Turcotte out with them. The whole event was replayed several times on the jumbotron. As the final results were announced formalizing Bradbury’s win, the crowd started booing.  The public address announcer had to say, “Don’t boo Bradbury. He’s been working at this for a very long time and ran a clean race. He deserves this medal as much as anyone else on the ice.”

The crowd became much calmer as the medals ceremonies began. Most of the medal ceremonies were held at downtown Salt Lake City’s Olympic Plaza in the evening of the day when an event was held. But, because the Short Track Speed Skating finals concluded after that day’s medal ceremonies, the medals for this event were presented immediately after competition ended. To me, the medals ceremonies are the epitome of what the Olympics are about. I can understand the organizational reasons for centralizing the medals ceremonies. But, I think these games lost something by not exposing as many people as possible to the presentation of the medals. The sight of the flags slowly rising to the ceiling, the sound of the national anthem, and the tears in the eyes of the athletes bring home to everyone just how powerful and precious this peaceful display of national pride can be.  While I regret that others did not get to share in this experience, I was glad that I got to experience it again and Dianne got to see it for herself.

While this was our first exposure to Short Track Speed Skating, I hope it isn’t our last. It turned out to be a fun event to watch. The fact that we were in the building for an event that would be talked about the next day throughout the country just made it sweeter. While the other events we attended were memorable, no other event would quite compare to the whole experience presented at the Short Track Speed Skating competition.

Women’s 500 Meter Final Results:

Gold: Yang Yang (A) – China

Silver: Evgenia Radanova – Bulgaria

Bronze:  Wang Chunlu – China

Men’s 1,000 Meter Final Results:

Gold: Stephen Bradbury –Australia

Silver: Apolo Anton Ohno – United States

Bronze: Matthieu Turcotte – Canada

Pictures (From top left):

1. Anton Apolo Ohno leading the pack in a semi-final heat. (ML)

2. Women’s final, with Yang Yang(A) in front and Caroline Hallisey in back. (ML)

3. Yang Yang(A) wins the gold, with Evgenia Radanova and Wang Chunlu right behind. (ML)

4. Early in the Men’s final with Ahn Hyun-Soo in the lead. Apolo Anton Ohno is in third place. (ML)

5. The Women's 500 meter short track speed skating medal ceremony. Yang Yang(A) is on the jumbotron. (DL)

6. Stephen Bradbury receives his gold medal. (ML)

7.  The Men's 1000 meter short track speed skating medal ceremony. Stephen Bradbury is on the jumbotron.(DL)

8. A dark picture of me in between short track speed skating races. (DL)

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