Lees Miracle Gold Shocks World
By Yoon Chul
Staff Reporter
Lee Seung-hoon shocked the world by winning a lucky but deserved gold medal. World No. 1 Dutchman Sven Kramer was disqualified for a lane infringement in the men's 10,000-meter long track speed skating event at the Vancouver Olympics, helping Lee win in Olympic record time at the Richmond Olympic Oval, Wednesday.
The 21-year-old South Korean skated fifth among eight pairs and crossed the finish line in a time of 12 minutes 58.55 seconds ― 0.37 seconds faster than the former Olympic record set by Jochem Uytdehaage of the Netherlands at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.
His record was more remarkable because the venue, the Richmond Oval, is a slow track, dubbed the Sloval.
During the race Lee was one lap ahead of his pairing Arjen van de Kieft of Netherlands. Lee went to the outside on the second to last corner trailing Kieft and in the last straight section Lee lapped him.
Following his splendid race, tremendous spectators gave the Asian a standing ovation.
Due to Kramer's disqualification World No. 3 Ivan Skobrev of Russia and World No. 2 Bob de Jong of Netherlands earned silver and bronze medal with times of 13:02.07 and 13:06.73.
"I'm really happy that I'm one of the first Asian skaters to win this race," said the Korean.
"I don't think I will be able to sleep now that I have the gold medal."
Kramer, the world record holder clocked in at 12:41.69, finishing the race 4.05 seconds faster than Lee in the final pairing. But the 23-year-old Dutchman was disqualified for failing to crossover the lane at the third corner with eight laps left, causing the favorite to miss out on the gold.
After Kramer crossed the finish line, his coach, Gerard Kemkers, told him the news. Kramer then threw his goggles down in anger.
"Usually, I don't want to blame anyone else, but this time I can't do anything else. I wanted to go to the outer lane then just before the cone Gerard shouted 'inner lane,' I thought he's probably right and went to the inner lane," Kramer said.
"At first I thought my skates passed the cone on the wrong side, I will be disqualified. Then I noticed in the stadium something was wrong.
"You have to decide in a split second. Afterwards I should have gone with my own thoughts, but I was brought into doubt. This really sucks. This is a real expensive mistake," added Kramer
``It is a disastrous error,'' Kemkers also said.
In order that all athletes skate the same distance, a skater should change over from the outside lane to the inside lane or vice versa, every lap.
Before Kramer crossed the finish line Lee, head coach Kim Kwan-kyu, and coach Kim Yong-soo celebrated, hugging each other, knowing that Kramer had taken the wrong lane.
``I expected to be on the podium but not for the gold,'' Lee said. ``I could not have realized that this would have happened.
"Head coach Kim told me that Kramer took the wrong lane. And my friend Mo Tae-bum told me that I'm a gold medalist before Kramer had finished the race," added Lee.
"I trained and prepared long for this. Sven Kramer is a great skater. His speed is tremendous. I want to compete with Sven again," the first long distance Asian gold medalist said.
Lee, who circled the first lap in 33.89 seconds, kept his lap time within 31 seconds for the next seven laps. On the ninth lap, he slowed, causing head coach Kim to push him to keep his speed under 32 seconds. Lee followed his coach's words.
When Lee hit the final 800 meters, he sped up recording a lap time of less than 31 seconds.
"Actually, I am lucky gold medalist," Lee said.
"When the color of my medal changed, my mind was somewhere else.
"At the podium two world stars lifted me up. It was really honor for me."
The two Europeans conversed and suddenly lifted the Korean on their shoulders. The astonishing celebration made the young Asian even happier on the podium.
Height is recognized at being a key attribute in long track speed skating. In longer distances Western athletes, who are usually much bigger than there Asian counterparts, can get more of an advantage through physics.
But the 1.77-meter Asian had a different idea.
"Definitely it is hard to trail Europeans who have long legs," Lee said. "In order to chase them I have to make my position lower and lower and it requires a lot of stamina. So I trained hard to gain more stamina last summer."
"And as Europeans are big, they also need a lot of stamina. Compared to them, I am small and I can get advantage at this point," Lee explained.
"As I raced earlier than other contenders, it was hard to sit back and wait. But I finished the race with a good result."
Lee was a short tracker but after he failed to make the short track national team, he switched to long track.
Though Lee was not a candidate for a medal at the Olympics, his achievements in the ISU World Cup was noticed by the world.
The 5,000-meter silver medalist and now 10,000-meter gold medalist in Vancouver started this season in Division B in the 5,000-meter event.
He finished his first race with a time of 6:29.99 seconds in the men's 5,000-meter Division B event in the ISU World Cup in Berlin. But when he raced in the Salt Lake City World Cup from Dec 11 to 13, his time was 6:14.67, more than 15 seconds faster.
Lee's lone international result in the 10,000 meters was 13:21.04 in the Asian Regional Qualifying Competition for ISU World Allround Speed Skating Championships on Jan 9 and 10 in Japan.
Lee's strength is on the corners and having raced at the short track venue for a long time his long track effort in the small venue helped him on the corners.
Lee trained hard but he didn't expect any medals before the Olympics. His first great achievement was expected to come at the Asian Games in November and the next Olympics in Sochi, Russia in 2014.
Seung-hoon's dream is to become a legendary Asian skater.
No one would question now that he's not on the right path.