Feb 9, 2010
Vancouver (AFP) - World men's champion Lee Ho-Suk is determined to tighten South Korea's stranglehold on the Olympic short-track speed skating gold despite the daunting challenges from the United States and Canada.
China's Wang Meng, who won the 500 metres to prevent South Korean women having a gold medal monopoly at the Torino 2006 Games, is ready to reign supreme after taking the overall, 500m and 1,000m titles at last year's world championships.
For South Korea, short-track skating and the Olympic Winter Games are blood brothers, although world figure skating champion Kim Yu-Na could be poised to grab the headlines in Vancouver.
In Torino, the South Korea team collected an all-time high of six gold, three silver and two bronze medals -- all but one of the bronzes coming in the high-speed sport full of crashes and disqualifications.
Lee, who finished runner-up to compatriot Ahn Hyun-Soo in the men's 1,000m and 1,500m and teamed with him to win the 5,000m relay, is ready to sweep all before him.
"My personal goal is to win the gold in the 1,500m and 1,000m as well as the 500m events, with hopes of winning the relay too," Lee, famous for his dynamic outside pass, told reporters.
Ahn has not raced internationally since injuring his knee two years ago and failed to qualify for Vancouver, leaving South Korea's hopes pinned on Lee.
Apolo Anton Ohno denied South Korea's sweep of four men's gold medals in Torino by winning the 500m. It was his second Olympic title after he claimed the 1,500m in his media-hyped Olympic debut in 2002 in Salt Lake City.
The 27-year-old American beat Lee into second spot overall at the 2008 world championships but finished fifth last year when compatriot J.R. Celski ended second and Canadian Charles Hamelin third behind the Korean.
Ohno, who has collected five Olympic medals and nine world titles, still managed to rank second in this season's 1,000m World Cup.
"I've never come into an Olympic Games in this sort of shape in my life," Ohno said. "Short track is not a sport where you give predictions but I definitely want to stand on the podium."
Hamelin, who won the 500m world title in 2007 and 2009 and finished top in this season's 500m World Cup, is aiming for his first individual Olympic medal.
Celski, 19, who grew up watching Ohno skate on television, missed the World Cup after his skate blade deeply sliced his left leg at the national championships in September.
"I took three months off for rehab and get back on my feet," Celski said. "I'm almost 100 percent."
At the world championships last year, Wang beat South Korean Kim Min-Jung into second overall spot with teammate Zhou Yang third last year to win the back-to-back women's titles.
The 24-year-old Chinese looks still more formidable in the absence of South Korean Jin Sun-Yu, who collected the 1,000m, 1,500m and 3,000m-relay golds in Torino. Hampered by injury, Jin could not win a ticket to Vancouver.
"Our target is beat the South Korean team," Wang said. "I am very confident. I am much stronger than four years ago, physically and mentally."
The sport became a full Olympic discipline in 1992 and China won their first short-track title in 2002, which was also the first-ever Winter Olympic gold for the Asian superpower.
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JR Celski is such a capable athlete. I am really excited to see him in the Olympics this week!
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