S. KOREA AT THE OLYMPICS: Mo celebrates birthday with 500m title

• Posted: Feb 15, 11:03p ET | Updated: Feb 17, 2:34a ET

South Korean, 21, nabs country's first-ever winter gold medal in a sport other than short track

RICHMOND (AP) -- MO Tae-Bum showed that South Korea is pretty good at the big oval, too.

Representing a country that is best known for its success in short track, Mo captured a surprising gold medal at the long track in men's 500m speed skating Monday, shaking off a delay of more than an hour caused by mechanical problems with the ice-resurfacing machines.

Mo put up the second-best time of the opening race, then blazed around the track in 34.90 seconds to snatch the gold with a total time of 1 minute, 9.82 seconds. Japan took the next two spots -- Keiichiro Nagashima claiming silver (1:09.98) and Joji Kato the bronze (1:10.01).

Mo became the first South Korean to win gold at the Winter Games in a sport other than short track, and he wasn't even considered the top contender from his country. His specialties are the 1000m and 1500m.

And get this: He won the biggest race of his life on his 21st birthday.

"It's my best present," Mo said through a translator, "and it's my present to Koreans."

Lee Kang-Seok came in ranked first in the world, just ahead of countryman Lee Kyou-Hyuk . But Lee Kang-seok was edged out for a medal, finishing fourth in (1:10.041) while Lee Kyou-hyuk was far back in 15th.

"I was a little bit disappointed that the other two were favorites," Mo said. "But that gave me an opportunity to do even better and make me more eager to do the race."

Nagashima fell on the backstretch while slapping hands with his coach, but he had already finished a race that he knew might be good enough for a medal. He slid along on his backside, pumping his fists for the Japanese fans.

"My dad was in the stands and the moment he found out that I won a medal, he was bawling his eyes out," Nagashima said. "My dad doesn't usually watch me, but he was there today. I was overwhelmed by that."

Mika Poutala had the lead after the first round, but a couple of stumbles in the second heat cost him a shot at becoming the first Finnish male to capture speed skating gold since 1928. He had just the 11th-best time of the second race, a total time of 1:10.044 leaving him in fifth.

There was some question about whether this event would even finish on time.

After the first 10 pairs skated the opening race, there was a long delay while officials tried to repair the ice-resurfacing machines. Officials discussed whether to postpone the rest of the competition to a later date, but one of the machines was fixed in time to get the ice in decent shape.

Still, the glitches in Richmond are becoming more and more of a concern. A day earlier, there was a problem with one of the machines during the women's 3,000, and there have already been complaints about the skating surface being too inconsistent from one day to the next.

"You just want the ice to be the same at the beginning of the event as the end," said Derek Parra, the U.S. national coach. "If it happens again, they got to get some other machines in here and be prepared."

The ice seems to be suiting the South Koreans just fine. They also got an unexpected silver in the men's 5,000 from Lee Seung-hoon.

Through three events, the Americans are still looking for their first medal at the Richmond Olympic Oval.

Tucker Fredricks was the best hope in the 500, but he stumbled in the first race coming off the first turn, lost momentum making sure he didn't fall and was out of it before he even got to the second heat. He finished 12th overall.

"It's tough. I got four more years -- oh God, it's going to be a long time -- but you've got to suck it up," said Fredricks, a 500 specialist who has no other real shot at a medal. "I'll be back. I got nothing else to do."

Shani Davis didn't even hang around for the second race. He ranked 18th (35.45) after the opening round and dropped out to focus on Wednesday's 1000m, in which he's the defending Olympic champion and world-record holder. He mainly uses the 500m to get in speed work for his best events, the 1000m and 1500m.

"He just drew on his wisdom and decided to focus on the 1,000," said Nathaniel Mills, a spokesman for Davis. "Above all, he wants to be fresh for the 1,000, and he wants to get ready for the 1,500 as well. The 500 has one of the greatest risks of injury, and he just wanted to play it safe since he got everything he wanted to get out of this race."

There was no doubt about the crowd favorite. Canada's Jeremy Wotherspoon , the world-record holder, hoped to make up for an Olympic career filled with spills and disappointment since he won his only medal, a silver at Nagano 12 long years ago.

Wotherspoon was in the hunt after the first race, holding down fifth place at 35.09. But a slight bobble in the second heat ended his hopes; the 33-year-old faded to ninth and sat alone on a bench in the middle of the oval afterward, knowing he'd lost his last real shot at Olympic gold.

"I felt like I was skating better than that," he said.

The flamboyant Poutala has been known to slap hands with those sitting along the edge of the oval before a race, high-five the guy in the lane next to him and slide along on the ice on his knees after he's introduced to the crowd.

Before the first heat, Poutala preened for the crowd and brushed off both his shoulders and the top of his skates a la Usain Bolt, that guy who's faster than anyone with shoes on his feet rather than skates.

But Bolt came through on the Olympic stage. Poutala fell short, following up the fastest time of the day (34.86) with a sloppy run that ended with him swinging far out of his lane rounding the final turn, crossing more than three-10ths of a second slower (35.18) than he did the first time.

Related to this article

Video

• 

  Speed skating: Fredricks is top American

  Tucker Fredricks finishes 12th in the men's 500m, the best U.S. finish in the event.

• Speed skating: Pearson's 500m runs
• Speed skating: Down goes Nagashima
• Speed skating: Men's 5000m
• Speed skating: Kato claims 500m bronze
• Bad ice
• Speed skating: Nagashima nabs 500m silver
• NBC Encore: Men's 500m
• Spills

Slideshows

• 

  Americans

  Photos of Americans Shani Davis, Tucker Fredricks, Nick Pearson and Mitchell Whitmore during the men's 500m on Day 4.

• Run 1
• Run 2
• Day 4: Mo Tae-Bum wins men's 500m

Stories

• Davis drops out
• Ice problems
• Wotherspoon shows age

View AP Article on NBC Olympics

OLYMPICS: The Shani and Sven show heads to Vancouver

Posted: Feb 4, 11:27a ET | Updated: Feb 8, 11:13a ET

NEW YORK (Reuers) -- Speed skating has produced Olympic heroes from invincible American Eric Heiden to triple champion Johann Olav Koss of Norway and the 2010 Games have candidates who could command the Vancouver stage in similar style.

American Shani Davis , who in 2006 became the first black man to win an individual Winter Games gold medal when he took the 1000m title, holds the world record at that distance and in the 1500m and will compete in four events -- the 500m, 1000m, 1500m and 5000m. 

Davis decided to pass on the 10,000m, the marathon race that crowned the five-gold haul for Heiden in 1980 -- something that now seems a difficult target in an age of specialisation in events whose demands range from explosive speed to muscle-burning stamina.

The Americans almost struggled to get to the starting line as US Speedskating lost its sponsor when Dutch bank DSB went bankrupt in October.

To the rescue came comedian Stephen Colbert, host of the mock cable television news show "The Colbert Report." He adopted the team as a cause and through his viewers raised more than $300,000 as "Colbert Nation" became the official sponsor.

Looming as favorite to dominate the distance events of 5000m and 10,000m is 23-year-old Dutchman Sven Kramer , world-record holder at both distances and winner of the last three world allaround titles.

The powerful Kramer likes the Vancouver ice and holds the Richmond Olympic Oval track record over 5000m and 10,000m, but bagging a clutch of world records the way Koss the Boss did in 1994 in Lillehammer is not on the cards.

The stylish, new, $178 million speed skating arena, with a "wood wave" roof enclosing an environmentally sensitive design, is unlikely to feature world-record times given the relatively heavy, sea-level air of Vancouver.

Impressive showing

Asians are fancied to figure in the 500m as South Korean Lee Kyou-Hyuk won the world sprint championships in Japan, ahead of compatriot Lee Kang-Seok with Japanese Keiichiro Nagashima third.

Other men capable of taking multiple medals include Italian Enrico Fabris , the 2006 1500m champion, and Norwegian Håvard Bøkko , a leading middle-distance skater.

The depth of talent and nature of Olympic competition could lead to surprises.

"This is an event where special people come out from nowhere and have a performance of a lifetime," American Chad Hedrick , the 2006 Olympic 5000m champion, told Reuters Television in an interview.

"This isn't a World Cup, a world championships. This is a different ball game."

On the women's side, the home country fields a strong team coming off an impressive showing in the last Games.

Cindy Klassen led the way for Canada in 2006 by claiming gold in the 1500m, silver in 1000m and bronze in the 3000m and 5000m as she became the most decorated Canadian Winter Games athlete ever with six career medals.

Germany's Jenny Wolf has been the world's leading sprinter, while Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic, winner of five world championship golds, has been dominant at distance races.

Up-and-coming skaters tipped for success in Vancouver include Canada's Christine Nesbitt and 20-year-old American Trevor Marsicano , who took four medals in four days at the world single-distance championships at the Olympic oval.

View Article on NBC Olympics

OLYMPICS: S. Korea aims for top-10 finish at Vancouver Winter Olympics

2010/01/26 09:17 KST

By Kim Boram

SEOUL, Jan. 26 (Yonhap) -- With the Winter Olympics scheduled to kick off in less than three weeks in the Canadian city of Vancouver, South Korea, which is bidding to host the winter games 2018, is setting its sights on a top-10 finish and at least six gold medals.
  

"At the Vancouver Olympics, we set the goal of winning at least six golds for a 10th-place finish in the medal tally," said Kim Jong-deok, head of administrative affairs at the national training center.
  

The games are scheduled to be held from Feb. 12-28.
  

South Korea ranked seventh in the medal standing at the 2006 Turin Winter Games, with a record six golds, three silvers and two bronzes, its biggest haul since the country won its first Olympic medals at the Albertville Winter Olympics in 1992.
  

The South Korean team is trying to enhance its medal standing as well as improve its sports diplomacy, as Vancouver may affect its bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics. PyeongChang, a mountain resort city located some 180km east of Seoul, has already lost to Canada's Vancouver and Russia's Sochi in its two previous attempts.
  

So far, South Korea has made four top-10 finishes at five previous Olympic Games, thanks to gold medal rushes led by the short track speed skating teams.
  

The short track squad has brought home 29 medals, including 17 golds out of 31 overall medals South Korea has earned on the Olympic stage. It swept all 11 short track medals at the Turin Winter Olympics four years ago, lifting South Korea to seventh.
  

The 10 short track skaters on the national squad are hoping to repeat the feat in Vancouver, but are expected to face keen competition from other countries, including China. With three-time gold medalists Ahn Hyun-soo and Jin Sun-yu out due to injuries, they are aiming at three golds in Vancouver to maintain their status as the country's biggest gold medal provider.
  

In addition to the short track speed skaters, athletes playing other sports are expected to participate in the medal race at the upcoming Olympics.
  

Reigning world champion Kim Yu-na is favored to win gold in the women's figure skating event.
  

After winning the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships and the World Championships in early 2009, she opened the 2009-2010 season with record-breaking performances in the Grand Prix series.
  

Her overall score of 210.03 set at the Trophee Eric Bompard in October is far higher than her competitors' season bests, including Japanese Miki Ando's score of 185.94.
  

Kim is expected to break the decades-old gold medal drought in South Korea's figure skating, one of the most popular sports at the Winter Olympics.
  

Meanwhile, speed skaters are also determined to stand on the top of the podium next month.
  

Lee Kang-seok and Lee Kyou-hyuk are in peak condition after undertaking six World Cup series competitions. As they hold first and second in the men's 500 meter World Cup rankings, their sprint races in Vancouver will be another rich vein of gold at the upcoming Olympics.
  

South Korea's squad is varied compared to previous Winter Games, with a total of 45 South Korean players competing in alpine skiing, cross country, ski jumping, free style skiing, snow board, biathlon, bobsled, and skeleton, as well as speed skating, short track speed skating, and figure skating.
  

Notably, the bobsled team piloted by four-time Olympian Kang Kwang-bae will compete in both four-man and two-man events for the first time in the country's winter sports history.
  

With the traditional Lunar New Year holiday coinciding with the opening weekend of the Winter Olympics, South Koreans are sure to be lured to their televisions with a sense of excitement and anticipation.

View Article in Yonhap News