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Short-track speed skating at the 2002 Winter Olympics – Men's 1500 metres

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Men's 1500 metres
at the XIX Olympic Winter Games
Pictogram for short track
VenueSalt Lake Ice Center
Dates20 February
Competitors31 from 19 nations
Winning time2:18.541
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Apolo Anton Ohno  United States
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Li Jiajun  China
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Marc Gagnon  Canada
2006 →
Short-track speed skating at the
2002 Winter Olympics
500 mmenwomen
1000 mmenwomen
1500 mmenwomen
3000 m relaywomen
5000 m relaymen

The men's 1500 metres in short track speed skating at the 2002 Winter Olympics took place on 20 February at the Salt Lake Ice Center.[1]

Records

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Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:[2]

World record  Apolo Anton Ohno (USA) 2:13.728 Kearns, United States 15 December 2001
Olympic record None None None None

The following new Olympic records were set during this competition.

Date Round Team Time OR WR
13 February Heat 5  Guo Wei (CHN) 2:18.846 OR
16 February Semifinal 1  Mathieu Turcotte (CAN) 2:15.942 OR

Results

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Heats

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The first round was held on 20 February. There were six heats of five skaters each, with the top three finishers moving on to the semifinals.[2]

Heat 1
Rank Athlete Country Time Notes
1 Ahn Hyun-soo  South Korea 2:23.287 Q
2 Bruno Loscos  France 2:23.517 Q
3 Satoru Terao  Japan 2:23.680 Q
4 Pieter Gysel  Belgium 2:24.161
5 Volodymyr Hryhor'iev  Ukraine 2:25.316
Heat 2
Rank Athlete Country Time Notes
1 Fabio Carta  Italy 2:26.644 Q
2 Apolo Anton Ohno  United States 2:26.809 Q
3 Nicky Gooch  Great Britain 2:27.084 Q
4 Kornél Szántó  Hungary 2:27.467
5 Mark McNee  Australia 2:27.840
Heat 3
Rank Athlete Country Time Notes
1 Rusty Smith  United States 2:25.179 Q
2 Li Jiajun  China 2:25.347 Q
3 Martin Johansson  Sweden 2:25.824 Q
4 Leon Flack  Great Britain 2:25.832
5 Kiril Pandov  Bulgaria 2:27.730
Heat 4
Rank Athlete Country Time Notes
1 Kim Dong-sung  South Korea 2:22.133 Q
2 André Hartwig  Germany 2:22.541 Q
3 Steven Bradbury  Australia 2:22.632 Q
4 Mark Jackson  New Zealand 2:22.906
5 Krystian Zdrojkowski  Poland 2:23.015
Heat 5
Rank Athlete Country Time Notes
1 Guo Wei  China 2:18.846 Q
2 Nicola Rodigari  Italy 2:19.067 Q
3 Miroslav Boyadzhiev  Bulgaria 2:22.082 Q
4 Balázs Knoch  Hungary 2:40.617
5 Naoya Tamura  Japan 3:06.585
Heat 6
Rank Athlete Country Time Notes
1 Marc Gagnon  Canada 2:20.126 Q
2 Cees Juffermans  Netherlands 2:20.397 Q
3 Gregory Durand  France 2:20.496 Q
4 Matúš Užák  Slovakia 2:22.557
– Simon Van Vossel  Belgium DQ

Semifinals

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The semifinals were held on 20 February. The top two finishers in each of the three semifinals qualified for the A final, while the third and fourth place skaters advanced to the B Final.[2]

Semifinal 1
Rank Athlete Country Time Notes
1 Kim Dong-sung  South Korea 2:15.942 QA
2 Bruno Loscos  France 2:15.981 QA
3 Rusty Smith  United States 2:16.906 QB
4 Miroslav Boyadzhiev  Bulgaria 2:23.468 QB
5 Nicola Rodigari  Italy 2:53.907
– Satoru Terao  Japan DQ
Semifinal 2
Rank Athlete Country Time Notes
1 Fabio Carta  Italy 2:25.072 QA
2 Apolo Anton Ohno  United States 2:25.152 QA
3 Guo Wei  China 2:25.321 QB
4 Steven Bradbury  Australia 2:25.457 QB
5 Nicky Gooch  Great Britain 2:25.903
6 André Hartwig  Germany 2:25.936
Semifinal 3
Rank Athlete Country Time Notes
1 Li Jiajun  China 2:19.877 QA
2 Marc Gagnon  Canada 2:20.050 QA
3 Cees Juffermans  Netherlands 2:21.726 QB
4 Martin Johansson  Sweden 2:24.032 QB
5 Gregory Durand  France 2:49.994
– Ahn Hyun-soo  South Korea DQ

Finals

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The six qualifying skaters competed in Final A, while six others raced in Final B.[2]

Final A
Rank Athlete Country Time Notes
1st place, gold medalist(s) Apolo Anton Ohno  United States 2:18.541
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Li Jiajun  China 2:18.731
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Marc Gagnon  Canada 2:18.806
4 Fabio Carta  Italy 2:18.947
5 Bruno Loscos  France 2:19.587
– Kim Dong-sung  South Korea DQ
Final B
Rank Athlete Country Time Notes
6 Rusty Smith  United States 2:27.155
7 Guo Wei  China 2:27.376
8 Cees Juffermans  Netherlands 2:27.611
9 Martin Johansson  Sweden 2:28.559
10 Steven Bradbury  Australia 2:28.604
11 Miroslav Boyadzhiev  Bulgaria 2:29.307

Controversy

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In the final race A, with one lap remaining and currently in second place, Apolo Ohno of the United States attempted to make a pass on the leader Kim Dong-Sung of South Korea, who then drifted to the inside and as a result, Ohno raised his arms to imply he was blocked. Kim finished first ahead of Ohno, but the Australian referee James Hewish disqualified Kim for what appeared to be impeding, awarding the gold medal to Ohno. Fourth-place finisher of the race, Fabio Carta of Italy, showed his disagreement with the disqualification decision saying it was "absurd that the Korean was disqualified".[3] China's Li Jiajun, who moved from bronze to silver, remained neutral saying: "I respect the decision of the referee, I'm not going to say any more".[3] Australian Steven Bradbury, the 1000 m gold-medal winner, also shared his views: "Whether Dong-Sung moved across enough to be called for cross-tracking, I don't know, he obviously moved across a bit. It's the judge's interpretation. A lot of people will say it was right and a lot of people will say it's wrong. I've seen moves like that before that were not called. But I've seen them called too".[3][4]

The South Korean team immediately protested the decision of the chief official of the race, but their protests were denied by the International Skating Union (ISU).[5][4][6] The South Korean team then appealed to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).[5][6] The IOC refused to see the case, stating, "This is a matter for the ISU to decide on. At this time, the IOC has received no proposal and taken no action".[5] The CAS sided with the officials of the race as "there is no provision in the short-track rule book for overturning a judgment call by the referee" after the South Korean team asked to have a video replay be used to determine whether or not there was a rule violation.[5][6]

The disqualification of Kim upset South Korean supporters, many of whom directed their anger at Ohno and the IOC. A large number of e-mails protesting the race results crashed the IOC's email server, and thousands of accusatory letters, many of which contained death threats, were sent to Ohno and the IOC.[5][7][8][9][10] South Korean media accused Ohno of simulating foul, using the Konglish word "Hollywood action".[11] Ohno shared his thoughts on the Koreans' hostile reaction by saying, "I was really bothered by it. I grew up around many Asian cultures, Korean one of them. A lot of my best friends were Korean growing up. I just didn't understand. Later on I realized that was built up by certain people and that was directed at me, negative energy from other things, not even resulting around the sport, but around politics, using me to stand on the pedestal as the anti-American sentiment".[12][13] Earlier the same year, President George Bush had named North Korea as one of three members of the Axis of Evil, which had upset some South Koreans; directing their anger at Ohno was a less direct way of voicing anger against Bush's decision.[14] The controversy continued at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, held jointly in South Korea and Japan several months after the Olympics.[15] When the South Korean soccer team scored a goal during the group stage match against the U.S. team, South Korean players Ahn Jung-Hwan and Lee Chun-Soo made an exaggerated move imitating the move Ohno had made during the speed skating event to imply the other athlete had drifted into his lane.[15]

References

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  • Epstein, Adam. Sports Law (The West Legal Studies Series): Volume 2002, Clifton Park, NY : Thomson/Delmar Learning, 2003. ISBN 978-0-7668-2324-2.
  1. ^ "Short Track Speed Skating at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games: Men's 1,500 metres". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 13 November 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d "Salt Lake City 2002 Official Report - Volume 3" (PDF). Salt Lake Organizing Committee. LA84 Foundation. 2002. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 February 2012.
  3. ^ a b c "Ohno finishes second, then first as winner is disqualified". St. Petersburg Times. 24 August 2002. Archived from the original on 8 December 2008. Retrieved 14 March 2008.
  4. ^ a b "South Korean DQ'd; officials promise protest". ESPN. 23 February 2002. Archived from the original on 10 December 2008. Retrieved 14 March 2008.
  5. ^ a b c d e "Ohno disqualified in 500, U.S. falls in 5,000 relay". Associated Press. 23 February 2002. Archived from the original on 1 March 2006. Retrieved 16 February 2007 – via ESPN.
  6. ^ a b c Epstein (2002), 272–273.
  7. ^ "Skating union rejects protest of South Korean's DQ". Associated Press. 21 February 2002. Archived from the original on 29 October 2006. Retrieved 16 February 2007 – via CNN.
  8. ^ 강훈상 (21 February 2002). 동계올림픽 쇼트트랙 판정에 네티즌 분노 '폭발' [Netizens explode their anger over short track ruling at the Winter Olympics]. Yonhap News Agency. Retrieved 22 August 2021 – via Naver.
  9. ^ 강훈상 (21 February 2002). 美 쇼트트랙 오노선수 홈페이지 '다운' [Website of American short track player Ohno crashed]. Yonhap News Agency. Retrieved 22 August 2021 – via Naver.
  10. ^ 이정진 (22 February 2002). IOC 홈페이지 마비 사태 [IOC's website paralyzed]. Yonhap News Agency. Retrieved 22 August 2021 – via Naver.
  11. ^ "Ohno slammed by Koreans in bitter echo of 2002". Agence France-Presse. 16 February 2002. Archived from the original on 20 February 2010. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  12. ^ Gold, Eric. "Speedskating's Apolo Anton Ohno". The Seoul Times. The Sports Network. Archived from the original on 23 March 2006. Retrieved 13 August 2009.
  13. ^ Crouse, Karen (16 February 2006). "Ohno Is hoping for victories and thaw in icy relations with South Koreans". The New York Times. pp. 1–2. Archived from the original on 11 November 2012. Retrieved 13 August 2009.
  14. ^ Demick, Barbara; Chi Jung Nam (26 February 2002). "Many South Koreans See Skating Loss as Part of U.S. Plot". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 6 November 2012. Retrieved 22 February 2010.
  15. ^ a b Cazeneuve, Brian (13 December 2004). "Korean Hostility". Sports Illustrated. Time Inc. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 2 November 2014 – via CNN.
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