Canada Wins Gold in Men’s Short Track Speed Skating 5000m Relay

Canada won its tenth gold medal of the 2010 Olympics with a win in the men’s short track 5000m relay.

(L-R) Canada's Francois-Louis Tremblay, South Korea's Si-Bak Sung and China's Weilong Song compete in the Men's 5000 m relay short-track final at the 2010 Winter Olympics. Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

Compound the craziness of short track speed skating with relay-style rotation of skaters right in the middle of the track, and you get the short track relay.

Teams of four skaters swapping spots on the track every lap-and-a-half, crowds of skaters on the ice, skaters pushing off their teammates, pushing off their competitors, missing pushes … it is like a three-ring circus in that there is so much happening so quickly in so many places you are sure to miss most of it.

Tonight it was Canada that emerged from this chaos with the gold medal, as brothers Francois and Charles Hamelin, and Olivier Jean, and Francois-Louis Tremblay, finished three-tenths of a second ahead of the powerhouse Korean team. American Apolo Ohno came in third, winning his eighth Winter Olympic medal.

China took the lead at the start of the race, holding off an attack by Korea ten laps in. With thirty laps to go the order was China, Canada, Korea, U.S. and France.

At twenty laps, the halfway point, Canada made its move, with the Hamelins pushing hard to open a small gap. Meanwhile, the French team dropped off the back, unable to survive the pace.

Over the next five laps the U.S. fell back as Canada extended its lead.

With ten laps to go the U.S. fell well back as they missed an exchange. Luckily Apolo Ohno, experienced enough to respond immediately, accelerated away on another lap, but this put the U.S. third behind Canada and Korea, and China who passed Korea for second when the Korean skaters also missed an exchange.

With four laps to go Apolo Ohno passed the Koreans to take third. On the final lap, the Korean skater cut inside of Ohno to take third back, while on the final corner, the Chinese skater, struggling to catch the Canadians, spun and fell.

This gave the Canadians a few tenths of a second breathing room, and gave the silver to Korea and the bronze to the USA, as Ohno stretched but still crossed the line .046 seconds behind the Korean skater.

The win gave Canada its tenth gold medal of the 2010 Olympic Games, more than any other nation. It was also a U.S. record-setting eighth Winter Olympic medal for Apolo Ohno. The Olympic record is twelve, eight gold and four silver, held by Norwegian cross-country skier Bjørn Dæhlie.