Sunday, February 17, 2002
Turcotte stands tall
By STEVE BUFFERY -- Team Sun
SALT LAKE CITY --The people of Australia will be dancing in the streets this morning in celebration of Steven Bradbury's victory in Olympic short-track speed skating.
As soon as they figure out what short-track speed skating is.
In one of the most bizarre finals in the sport's history -- and there have been some wild ones -- Bradbury crossed the finish line first to become Australia's one and only Winter Olympic medallist in an individual event.
American coverboy Apolo Anton Ohno was second and Canada's Mathieu Turcotte won the bronze.
"Freakish, I guess," said Bradbury, in summing up his historic victory. "I'm happy to be sitting here with the gold medal. That's just the way short track happens sometimes and today I'm the one who gets the spoils."
"I probably consider myself the luckiest guy in the world right now," he told the CBC.
It's important to stress that Bradbury's victory, in one minute, 29.109 seconds, was more the result of patience and luck than speed. Quite frankly, he should have finished last in the final. But lady luck was smiling on the surfer dude from Australia's sunny Gold Coast yesterday.
As the lead pack of skaters fired around he final turn, Ohno, who was inside, and China's Jiajun Li, on the outside, began to jostle for the lead. About the same time, they pushed on each other and Li went down and crashed into the padded boards. Right after that, the Korean, Hyun-Soo Ahn, who was in third coming around the bend, went down, taking Ohno out with him, and then Turcotte.
All three went sliding into the boards, allowing the fortunate Aussie, who was well behind the pack in the final few metres, to glide through the finish line with his arms held high in triumph.
If Ohno had any luck at all, it was that he crashed closer to the finish line than Sherbrooke, Que. native Turcotte. The two North Americans scrambled to their feet at about the same time and the 19-year-old Ohno awkwardly strided over and stuck his blade over the line for the silver, in 1:30.160, followed by Turcotte, 25, who did the old homeplate slide for the bronze, in 1:30.563.
"I could have been disqualified for that. I was trying to cross the line as fast as I could, that's why I did that," said Turcotte. "But there's a rule saying that you have to cross the line with both blades on the ice."
Given that he was in pretty good position to move up for a medal before the crash, Turcotte, 25, did not feel any hesitation in accepting the hardware.
"I couldn't be happier today," he said.
2002 Games Short Track Speed Skating Coverage
