RICHMOND, British Columbia – Lee Seung-hoon of South Korea won a stunning gold medal in men’s 10,000-meter speedskating Tuesday when overwhelming favorite Sven Kramer made an amateurish mistake, failing to switch lanes just past the midway point of the race, and was disqualified.
Kramer finished about 4 seconds ahead of Lee, but it didn’t matter. The South Korean already was celebrating on the infield while the Dutch world-record holder was finishing his race, apparently unaware of what he had done.
When Kramer came across the line, he threw up his arms to celebrate what he thought was his second gold medal of the Vancouver Games. Then, as he was coasting along on the backstretch, the victory celebration suddenly ended.
Dutch coach Gerard Kemkers told the skater what he had done. Kramer reacted with disbelief, then slung away his glasses in disgust.
Lee won with an Olympic-record time of 12 minutes, 58.55 seconds, breaking the mark of 12:58.92 set by Jochem Uytdehaage of the Netherlands at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.