Just a few days into the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, and South Korea is leading the medal count in speed skating (not counting short track), with three medals racked up so far. In overall standings as of this morning, South Korea ranks fifth—behind Germany, the United States, France and Canada—in total medal count.
Mo Tae-bum and Lee Sang-hwa each won gold, respectively, for the men’s and women’s 500-meter speed skating events. With a total time of 1 minute, 9.82 seconds, Mo finished ahead of Japan’s Keiichiro Nagashima who claimed silver, and Joji Kato, who earned the bronze. In the women’s event, Lee managed to beat out two favorites, including German world-record holder Jenny Wolf, who had swept eight races during the World Cup season, and China’s Wang Beixing. Lee won by five-hundredths of a second, with a total time of 1 minute, 16.09 seconds.
South Korea’s Lee Seung-Hoon also won a silver in the 1500-meter.
Meanwhile, in short track news, Lee Jung-Su outraced the United States’ Apolo Ohno in the 1500 meter last Saturday night. It turned out be quite a dramatic race, as two of Lee’s teammates, Sung Si-Bak and Lee Ho-Suk, literally knocked each other out of the race. In the final lap, Lee Ho-Suk appeared to have slipped and then inadvertently took out Sung, as Lee Jung-Soo raced to the finish, with Ohno behind him. J.R. Celski, an Asian American like Ohno, was able to finish third, earning the bronze.
Ohno now ties Bonnie Blair for most medals won by a U.S. Winter Olympian. But I know some Korean Americans who were cursing him during his races, which were not exactly “clean.” There were some accusations that Ohno had pushed Lee in the semi-final, and even his qualification for the finals was controversial. Plus, the American has a “history” with Koreans. In the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, South Korean Kim Dong-Sung finished first, but was disqualified for blocking Ohno, who became famous for dramatically raising his arms like a victim during the race and was then awarded the gold. Kim denied the blocking charge, and Ohno went on to become quite the pariah among many Koreans. In the latest race, it doesn’t help matters that Ohno told the media he had hoped there would be a similar disqualification because of all the contact between him and the South Korean skaters during the Vancouver race.
What are your views on Ohno? And how nationalistic does your family get when watching the Olympics? Whom do you root for?
