They Were Skating the Gamut of Emotions

As Olympic venues go, the Palavela is on the small side, more cozy than cavernous. Saturday night, it managed to contain the full spectrum of emotions.

On the same ice, we saw Apolo Anton Ohno’s Olympic jubilation and Kimberly Derrick’s personal anguish. Upraised arms and slumping shoulders. Ohno skated to a gold medal in the men’s 500-meter short-track event, beating South Korean rival Ahn Hyun-soo.

Derrick ... skated, which was a challenge in itself the day after her grandfather, 74-year-old Darrel Edwards, had died of an apparent heart attack while accompanying the family to Turin. Her entry in the event wasn’t even assured until the U.S. Olympic Committee sent out an e-mail about two hours before it began.

Derrick looked sad as she pulled up to the start line for the quarterfinals of the women’s 1,000 meters. She wiped just below her eye, then wiped her nose. She wiped her nose several times throughout the race.

The tragic turn of events proved too much for a woman who prides herself on her ability to focus. She recently told the Grand Rapids Press that when she skates, “I don’t even pay attention to the crowd. I don’t even hear ‘em cheering. I just think about the race.”

Saturday it was obvious that she had more on her mind.

“This was the most emotional day of my life,” Derrick said in a statement released by speedskating officials. “I’m proud to be here at the Olympics and at the same time my heart hurts so much. I knew I had to race because that’s what my grandfather wanted me to do. He was my biggest fan, the one who held my hand while chasing my dream. He was and forever will be my pillar of strength. When I got onto the ice I was overcome by emotions, but I knew I had to race.”

She jumped out to the lead on the first lap but soon fell behind. After the race she was disqualified for pushing Dutch skater Liesbeth Mau Asam.

Derrick’s Olympic story had been about as close to overnight as you’ll find in this competition. She was a champion inline skater, but switched to ice skates only three years ago, training in Grand Rapids, Mich., with the West Michigan Speed Skating Assn.

Ohno had already been on the scene since the previous Olympic cycle, an eternity in today’s media age. The Sports Illustrated cover subject from the 2002 Olympic preview issue already had a gold medal and a sliver medal from Salt Lake City and he picked up a bronze in the 1,000 meters here. With the 500, he went out a champion.

“I was happy before this medal,” Ohno said. “To be able to come here and finish it off like this is spectacular.”

But it seems as if he can never win without some degree of controversy. His gold in Salt Lake City was disputed because a South Korean was disqualified. Here, he might have had a false start in the final.

In television replays, his upper body appeared to be moving before the gun went off. When it was replayed on the arena scoreboard screen, a few boos came from the athletes’ section of the stands.

Ahn saw the replay as well.

“I saw how Ohno started ... and I thought that I should leave that to the referees,” Ahn said. “That was not my place to go. I was focusing on my game the whole time. That’s all I can say about the race.”

Phew, let’s leave it there. In these tense times, we don’t need more antagonism between countries. After Salt Lake, Ohno was so hated in South Korea, I thought they’d embargo all U.S. goods. Ahn even skated over to shake Ohno’s hand after the race.

For the record, Ohno said, “I thought I timed the start just perfect.”

However he did it, Ohno got off the line ahead of everyone, grabbing a lead he never relinquished.

Ahn, who’d won the 1,500- and the 1,000-meter events earlier in the competition, was last coming off the start line and never got close enough to make one of his trademark late dashes for the gold. He worked his way up to third but couldn’t get close enough to challenge Ohno. It didn’t help that Canadian Eric Bedard caught Ahn in the head with an elbow as Ahn tried to pass.

Ohno was comfortable enough to smile as he took the last curve. Then he steadied himself, crossed the line first and threw up his arms.

“Just emotion,” Ohno said. “So much emotion, passion. Everything was running through my body. It was crazy.”

There was a little bit of everything else at the Palavela, including ‘80s tunes, “Tainted Love” and “Take on Me” during the breaks, appearances by long-track gold medalist Shani Davis and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, four performances to the same song by the official Olympic cheerleaders (who were joined by a pompom-waving Canadian in a Dany Heatley jersey) and an itchy trigger finger by the starter, who fired a shot as the racers approached the line for the men’s 5,000 meter relay B final.

“False start on the starter,” the public address announcer said. “One more and he’s out.”

Ohno uncorked one last great skate in the 5,000 relay B final, coming from fourth place to overtake Italy with two laps to go on the final leg and get a bronze medal for himself and U.S. teammates Rusty Smith, J.P. Kepka and Alex Izykowski.

It was Ohno’s fifth Winter Olympic medal, matching the American record for total Winter medals set by Eric Heiden, who won all of his -- and all of them gold -- in Lake Placid in 1980.

“This whole Olympic experience is amazing,” Ohno said.

No matter where you go in them, you’ll find a bit of everything.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read more by Adande, go to latimes.com/adandeblog.