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VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Apolo Anton Ohno glided around the ice Saturday night with a U.S. flag tucked under an arm, flashing a handful of fingers plus one.
That makes six, his new career medal count that matches Bonnie Blair for the most by a Winter Olympian from the United States.
This one was a silver in the 1,500 meters, and it typified the wild world of short-track speedskating. Ohno was fourth going into the last turn when two of the three Koreans in front of him wiped out, giving him a clear stretch to the finish line behind Lee Jung-su of South Korea.
It also paved the way to bronze for J.R. Celski, just five months after the blade of his right skate sliced his left thigh to the bone during a crash at the U.S. short track championships.
Ohno and Celski put the United States on the medal stand for the first time at the Vancouver Games. Then Hannah Kearney won the women’s moguls to put an American on the top step for the first time. Teammate Shannon Bahrke earned bronze, so the United States ended the day with four medals and an early lead in the overall chase.
Of course, the first day of competition was filled with Vancouver Olympics firsts, such as Swiss ski jumper Simon Ammann landing the first of 86 gold medals to be awarded and Dutch speedskater Sven Kramer setting the first Olympic record while winning the 5,000 meters.
It also was a day of continued mourning for the 21-year-old luger from the republic of Georgia who died Friday, and the fallout from it.